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Someone who had watched some of my YouTube videos and read previous blogs emailed me with this comment about British camera clubs.
“The talk in clubs is nearly always about gear not pictures. I was once told, as a very young man, by a senior club official in my home city’s photographic society that in order to produce work that was any good I needed to aspire to a Leica rather than the tatty Pracktica I was using. Needless to say I never went to that club again and I’m not convinced that attitudes have changed much over the years.” He’s dead right. Not only have they not changed but have become even worse, if that’s possible.
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| Alltyblaca, Ceredigion, 2022. From the series: 'Flying the Flag' |
Many years ago, when I was a very young photographer, there may have been just a scintilla of an excuse for camera club types not being aware of the wider world of serious photography because there were no books, (in the U.K. at least), very few exhibitions apart from the odd historical show in a museum and the amateur magazines were dire. (Nothing much has changed with them either). Now, with all the great galleries specialising in photography, the wealth of important photography books being published and the many talks, seminars, portfolio sessions that are taking place all over the U.K. there is no excuse. Of course, the people you never see at these are members of British camera clubs. They are actively discouraged from getting involved by the club ‘officials’, in case they may learn too much and realise that what is being pumped into them in the clubs has nothing whatsoever to do with contemporary photography. They continue to foster the ludicrous ‘competition culture’ for cheap silver-plated egg cups and the like for categories of imagery that has no relevance whatsoever in the contemporary world. What you end up with is a pointless and risible ‘parade of the pot hunters’ kept in ignorance by the club officials.
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| Ceredigion, 2022. From the series: 'Flying the Flag' |
Likewise, they deliberately censor and edit what is written in their club magazines and newsletters, withhold information and ‘dumb down’ the writings in case their members might end up knowing more than them. They edit out anything that challenges the archaic, out-dated and totally irrelevant ideas that they espouse to their members. Any article that deals with ideas around contemporary culture and photography or uses the current language of photography go straight into the editor’s shredder. If they have guest speakers at all, these are selected on the basis that they will not ‘rock the boat’ and simply pander to their outmoded photographic practices. These club officials are nothing but parasites feeding off the ignorance that they deliberately foster within their clubs. They then strut around with a self-importance that attempts to disguise this lack of knowledge. Maybe the worst of these are the so-called judges that hand out prizes based on a mythical rule book. They use this as an excuse for their own ignorance of contemporary photographic practice. Another way of keeping the members down.
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| Drefach, Ceredigion, 2022. From the series: 'Flying the Flag' |
Unfortunately, the R.P.S. must share in the blame for this. That this organisation, which was pretty much discredited some years ago when its important historical collection was removed from its ‘care’ still exists, is a national disgrace. Sadly, the camera club ‘pot hunters’ are still fooled into thinking that it is a credible organisation and persuaded to buy the worthless, so-called ‘distinctions’ that it peddles. We will never know what was lost or irreparably damaged from that collection before it was taken from it and put into the care of the then National Museum of Film and Photography – (now the National Media Museum in Bradford). The R.P.S. has never disclosed this. What remains of that collection is now in the V&A London.
Sadly, many who initially join camera clubs do so in the hope of furthering their photography and learning about contemporary ideas to support this. Sadly, these members, like the one I quoted above, either leave quickly because they can spot that the ‘officials’ and ‘judges’ are ignorant and arrogant, or they stay because they have been conned by the bluffing and swaggering and then subsequently, their photography is doomed to stagnate in the mire of the sad club competition culture.
