A street photography exhibition in the North West
I love it when my workshop students come together - either for some shooting on the streets or to collaborate on a project. Everyone who's attended a workshop is invited to join the StreetSnappers Collective; within that group a sub-group has emerged, StreetSnappers North West, a group of photographers from Lancashire, Merseyside, Cumbria and Cheshire who regularly meet to shoot and drink coffee (and other things) together. This great group has its first exhibition, opening on January 5th . . .
I asked Rob Mandel, one of the organisers, to tell us more about the group and the exhibition . . .
The group arose from a chance comment, just about 3 months ago while out shooting with Kenny McRae & Derek Wilcock. I mentioned a large dynamic street photo event I’d been to in London (Street Badass) and how active and structured the scene appeared there compared to the ad hoc nature of small occasional meetups locally. While videos and online connections are invaluable, the power of direct personal, face-to-face links through local meetups is even better in forming and strengthening photographic and social links. At the time, of course, it was no more than a vague desire to meet other street photographers and possibly have an exhibition together. We had no desire to form a new organisation but instead use our StreetSnappers connections to tie-in with others locally, i.e. in the Northwest.
It has all developed rather faster than we had expected. After our first coffee shop meeting and a superb photo walk (with our 7 members) we were beginning to realise how difficult it was to find a suitable exhibition venue. By our second get-together four weeks later, there were 14 of us crammed into Caffe Nero – and we had a venue at a local amateur theatre company. I can’t claim to have pounded the streets for days in search of a suitable gallery, instead, out of the blue, I was offered a cost-free exhibition at the Whitefield Garrick theatre. These fortuitous occasions don’t happen often in life, but when they do, you just gotta grab ‘em! I accepted on behalf of our embryonic photo group.
The Group consists of 15 StreetSnappers, 14 of whom are participating in the exhibition. As with most groups there is a mix of experience, skill and interests – some have been into landscape, portrait or abstraction – all are going for ‘street’.
Currently, while we have only had two ‘full scale’ meetups, small groups of members are getting together for photo rendezvous’ in the region. While Manchester has been the main focal point so far, the idea is to explore much more of the region photographically.
I particularly want to encourage a balance of both male and female photographers – the proportion now being 3:12. The existence of women only spaces in SP suggests that they are not always comfortable in the ‘blokey’ atmosphere of most SP groups. In addition, we could do with some younger members too… but maybe that’s just too ambitious?
The Exhibition
The theme of the exhibition was decided upon with minimal consideration and maximal scope for diverse contributions – ‘The North’. We knew there were 28 hanging spaces available and there were 14 of us! We wanted a coherent look to the layout – Dave Boam provided suggestions on affordable framing and mounts with photographs sized at approximately A4. All framed prints are due to be delivered to or acquired by me well before our Opening Event at 7-9pm on 5th January. We have a staffed bar on site and we’re now working on publicity for this event with the help and graphic design skills of Robin Maryon.
One factor which has been invaluable has been my link with Pete H who is both experienced in creating exhibitions and is a member of the Garrick Theatre committee. He has helped hugely in liaison with the theatre. In addition, he has offered to write a promotional article about the group and exhibition in the January edition of his online arts newsletter (Whitefield Creative Arts Magazine) as well as a post exhibition critique of our photographic extravaganza… gulp! The downside is that after our opening event, the show will only be open to the theatre-going public. So, book a seat for ‘Be My Baby’ and see the exhibition in the foyer!
We would like to tour the exhibition in the northwest and already have a venue pencilled-in for May-June thanks to Stan Crook’s links with the café, Tea Amantes in Blackpool.
The photographers who have joined are committed to the group and the exhibition - as a result all has gone remarkably smoothly so far - although I keep expecting disaster around every new corner.
From my point of view this has all been a huge learning experience, a bit stressful but great fun. There may even be a zine of the exhibition to come… watch this space.
Want to join in?
If you have attended one of my workshops and live / shoot in the north west of England, you’re very welcome to join this great group. Just contact Robert Mandel on the Collective group on Facebook and he’ll give you more information.
