Wanting Better by:Gord Barker

    

     Perhaps the most interesting aspect of my photographic journey is that I'm never completely sure of how things will turn out. I founded the Paris Photo Collective in 2019.  About a month ago, I walked away from it. 

       I don't feel any direct animosity towards the members of the group. I have always maintained that the group's direction and reason for existence should always be dictated by the group itself. Perhaps I've been wrong in that approach. Although I  offered up the position of administrator of the group on a regular basis, no one else seemed to want to take it on. So without a clear direction for the group to follow, it has stagnated. It really has become nothing more than a social club with a lackluster bi-weekly photo contest.

    Can we get past the smug sophomoric approach to photography which dictates that "I like my pictures and that's all that matters." I think that it's the second part of that statement that irritates the most. I mean, if you don't care how your images are perceived by others, why are you part of a photo group? 

  Perhaps even more irritating is the statement "I don't look at other people's pictures." Why? Are you afraid you might learn something? The acknowledgement of others' work as significant does not diminish the potential for one's own work to be considered valid or even great.

    Furthermore, whenever I have proposed any educational aspect to the meetings, perhaps bringing in a guest speaker or when I have offered to teach a little about basic camera controls, the ideas have been met with vehement opposition. It would appear that I headed up a group that had no interest in expanding their skills or knowledge base.

   I want to talk with photographers who want to expand their potential within this medium. I truly want to see their vision. I have been making photographs for over 57 years and I still want to learn more about the craft. Someday I hope to get good at it! 

    If I am to be a member of a photographic group, I want it to be a group that wants better!  That's all.

         ...more later

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