Pho­to­gra­phy can be a lonely busi­ness, but the­re is no rea­son why that has to be the case. Of cour­se, the­re are many that enjoy the soli­tu­de. If you’re a pho­to­gra­pher who enjoys more of a com­mu­ni­ty the­re are some gre­at ways to get tog­e­ther for group pho­to­gra­phy. The rea­sons to join a group are varied, and even if you’re a lone ran­ger the­re are likely some ide­as here for you. Lin­king up with others could just be about an online com­mu­ni­ty, or mee­ting up in per­son. Howe­ver you like to do group pho­to­gra­phy, here are seven ide­as for you.

The­se are pro­jects that a num­ber of pho­to­graph­ers par­ta­ke in tog­e­ther. The idea at the end is to have a body of work under a com­mon the­me taken by every mem­ber of the group. A pro­ject like this could well lead to a group exhi­bi­ti­on or a col­la­bo­ra­ti­ve pho­to­gra­phy book.
Mason Lauv
Desi­gner

Joi­ning a pho­to­gra­phy club is one of the best con­duits for group pho­to­gra­phy. Through a club, the­re is the pos­si­bi­li­ty to orga­ni­ze many of the other ide­as men­tio­ned in this arti­cle. Pho­to­gra­phy clubs typi­cal­ly meet at regu­lar inter­vals of perhaps once a week or once a mon­th, though lots of acti­vi­ty can occur online bet­ween meetings.

The best place to find the­se clubs is through sear­ching social media, your local com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter, or perhaps the­re is a school club near you. The­se clubs are a gre­at place to learn new pho­to­gra­phy skills, with evening post-pro­ces­sing work­shops being fair­ly typi­cal. Are you having trou­ble fin­ding the right club for you? You could always start up your own group!

In most cases, you’ll work on the pho­to­gra­phy indi­vi­du­al­ly, though the lea­der of the pro­ject may seek to cura­te your work in a cer­tain direc­tion. The fol­lowing are a few ide­as that you could try:

  • Sub­way pro­ject – Most big cities have a mass tran­sit sys­tem, with many sta­ti­ons. The aim of this type of pro­ject would be to take one pho­to­graph per sta­ti­on. The lar­ger cities usual­ly have many sta­ti­ons, so divi­ding up the workload makes sen­se. In pro­jects like the­se, it’s often a good idea to seek per­mis­si­on from the aut­ho­ri­ties befo­re begin­ning to do any photography.
  • 365 days or 52 weeks – Ins­tead of working on your own pro­ject share it with others, and ask them to make pho­to­graphs on the same the­me as your own! The dPS wee­kly pho­to­gra­phy chal­len­ge could form the basis of this project.
  • Food pho­to­gra­phy – Ever­yo­ne loves good food, so com­bi­ne this with your pho­to­gra­phy. Each pho­to­gra­pher can pick a coun­try. Then make food from that coun­try, and pho­to­graph it. You could even make this into an inter­na­tio­nal cookbook.