I keep running in to photographers online who hail from Bellingham, WA, where I live. Obviously there is some bias here, in that I tend to notice them. Still, I don't think I am seeing that many photographers online that I ought to be able to name, easily, 4 from here and maybe a couple more from the area that I ran in to mention of first online. Statistically something like 1 in 2000 US photographers ought to be from here, and I am pretty sure I'm not that busy.
I think there might just be a crapload of photographers around here.
There is no doubt that I find the idea of talking to photographers in real life an alarming prospect. They will probably want to compare cameras or some goddamned thing. Also, I almost certainly hate their pictures, and would have to think of something nice to say.
Still, I suppose I should read out the hand of brotherhood anyways. Accordingly:
If you fancy yourself something of a photographer, and think you can throttle your urge to talk about gear, you should feel welcome to reach out to me by, say, email. Perhaps we could get together and talk about something other than gear, or possibly just silently drink beer. I'd be down.
amolitor@gmail.com will reach me.
Maybe we could form a collective. Maybe we could call it I Hate Your Fucking Pictures, But You're OK which doesn't have quite the same ring as group f.64 or Linked Ring or Photo-Secession but would be at any rate honest.
I think that when photographers get together they should talk about other people's good photographs. Or coffee.
ReplyDeleteHey Andrew, we had one of the most successful, I really should say wonderful, groups of this sort for a few years in Cedar Key, substantially smaller than Bellingham, about 750 or so souls. We called ourselves TACK [12 Artists @ Cedar Key] even though we never quite made it to twelve. We worked in diverse mediums, I was the only photographer. Our aim was to meet and discuss our ‘work in progress’ and to find a good venue where to mount a quarterly exhibition of new work. We felt this would force us to produce, and not just sit around and talk. I found it extremely helpful to have my work commented on by diverse artists, from retired art professors to freshly graduated Art Historians, and commercial illustrators. We found a fine venue in the fantastic Island Hotel, where we were able to show/hang our work in the large dining room. We had great receptions there, not just the ‘usual suspects,’ but smatterings of local commercial fishermen and their families, clam farmers, and oystermen. Since the hotel’s clientele was pretty eclectic our work was exposed to some interesting and influential people, and as an aside, we sold a fair amount of work that way.
ReplyDeleteWe basically had no rules, except trying to talk about art and each other’s work, instead of gossiping, talking equipment, or gall bladder operations. We self-selected into small cells needed to handle the exhibits, publicity, and that kind of stuff. When ArtBasel/Miami Beach was ‘in-session’ we would get together a small group and treck down there.
Remnants of our web site are still out there if you care to poke around a bit:
http://artistscedarkey.tripod.com/
This is probably a bit more complicated than what you are looking for. My comment boils down to this, you might want to go outside the photo community looking for ‘coffee mates.’