One of the things I struggle with the most in the real-world is finding the motivation to make time for my hobbies. After I moved to New York, I took an unexpected hiatus from my blog and regretted it deeply. Even now that I'm settled in, it's been difficult to motivate myself in shooting and expanding my creativity. As much as I love what I've been photographing recently, I want to stretch myself for the sake of art. I loved being in my Digital Photography class where you had a set amount of time to work within the confines of a random challenge. It allowed me to experiment with abstraction and self-portraits, but also to get feedback from my classmates and professors on how to improve. I browsed around on Flickr for groups, but was intimidated by groups with 5000+ members and weekly challenges which had hundreds of submissions. Instead, I crave a smaller and more intimate group. Thus, I have launched a new idea: The Photograph Collective. A group of 5-6 amateur photographers who operate as a community with a mission of growing both technicals and creatively. Once every 6 weeks, 1 member will create a challenge based around a theme, either abstract or literal. At the end of the allotted time frame, each person will share their series with the group and share praises, critiques, and suggestions. Finally, the group's work along with corresponding responses will be published on thephotographcollective.wordpress.com. I'm so excited that two of the first photographers to join will be: 1) The amazing Stephen Turnock who I met in London, but is studying abroad in Évreux, France 2) The phenomenal Beatrice who I have known since high school, and is shooting in San Diego, California. This means that we are looking for about 2-3 more amateur photographers to join us - no matter where you are in the world!
If you are interested at all or know if anybody interested, please email us at thephotographcollective@gmail.com and introduce yourself!
Don't be afraid to join! I'm an amateur myself, having only started shooting about one year ago. I think this would be an amazing way to have a community of some sort.