Just when you thought that the antics of British camera clubs couldn't get any more ridiculous, information about a competition came across my studio desk recently, which just emphasised how nonsensical the world of the British camera club is. Also how remote it is from the world of contemporary photography.
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| Splott, Cardiff, 1969. From a series for a forthcoming book |
Amateur photography competitions have always been a bit of a farce but the various categories and 'rules' that accompanied this particular club's annual outing were risible and in contemporary photographic terms, completely irrelevant. The 'prizes' were a series of rather pompously named trophies and fake silver cups, plates and bowls. In addition, laughably, were various tankards, shields and vases! A pair of vases no less, more appropriate for a flower arranging competition I would have thought. All these awarded for the different categories. I kid you not. Now, quite what a photographer is supposed to do with all those is anyone's guess. Although a full tankard of something alcoholic might be an aid to inspiration. Rather like the Poet Laureate receives an annual stipend of a butt of sack to stimulate the muse. However, my guess is that boringly, the camera club tankard will be presented empty. There are also apparently, 'impact trophies'. Now whether these are meant to impart impact themselves, in which case they may be a bit battered by now, or whether they are awarded for 'impact', I couldn't quite figure out.
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| Splott, Cardiff, 1969 |
What was going on in British camera clubs was already a generation or two out of touch with contemporary photographic reality when I began work as a photographer aged 15. In the intervening sixty years they haven't changed one iota but photographic ideas and practice have moved on apace and become even more vibrant, exciting and relevant to today's world.
The concepts and expressions that camera clubs still use are rooted in the 19th.century. They still waffle on about 'monochrome', 'pictorial' and 'composition'. They also award prizes for 'large' prints and 'small' prints. Really? You get a prize according to size? Sounds more like a vegetable show. Biggest parsnip etc. What is designated 'large' anyway and who decides this? My 'Wildwood' prints exhibited in the USA and European galleries were five feet by four. Is that 'large'? Not compared with my 'Village and Memorial Halls' series which were eight feet wide. Maybe that's 'large'? Well certainly not by comparison with Thomas Struth's (b.1954) work from his 'New Pictures from Paradise' series that I saw in the Metropolitan Museum of art in New York. They were at least fifteen feet wide.
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| Splott, Cardiff, 1969 |
The sad reality is that the so-called, self-appointed' 'judges' that set these totally arbitrary and nonsensical categories have probably never been to a contemporary photographic exhibition and never set foot in a photography gallery. They only get away with their ignorant bluffing by the fact that it is they who dictate the terms of these competitions that are themselves totally irrelevant to improving standards. In fact, they are designed to suppress innovation and progress in order to make themselves appear clever. In the same way these 'judges' and those who run British camera clubs keep these farcical antics in place to discourage young educated photographers from joining and intimidating them with their knowledge, skills and contemporary ideas. A deliberate suppression of progress.
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| Splott, Cardiff, 1969 |
While one can laugh off the ridiculous and irrelevant categories and ludicrous prizes, it is totally unforgivable for amateur 'judges' and the camera club hierarchy to deliberately set out to deny other members the opportunity to advance their own work and be informed about contemporary ideas. If, due to these folks total lack of understanding, they are intimidated by contemporary ideas and are not up to dealing with them, then maybe they should step aside and allow others with the relevant skills and knowledge to support and encourage the other club members to make the quantum leap from the 19th. into the 21st. century.
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