Jason Etzel — Picture Soup

Meetup: Helping Folks Self-Organize to Change their Worlds

By Diane Berkenfeld

meetup logo for picture-soup.com article Meetup.com’s mission is to “revitalize local community and help people around the world self-organize.” Meetup believes that people can change their personal world, or the whole world, by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference.

Currently more than 7 million people are Meetup members. There are over 250,000 monthly meetups by 79,000 local groups in 45,000 cities, covering 46,000 topics. There were over 800 photography Meetups last I checked.

The Meetup platform provides organizers with tools needed to build and sustain special interest communities, such as: backend administration for email list creation and management, event creation and promotion tools, PayPal payment, tracking how active a person in your group has been (how many times they RSVP), or who attends what event, calendaring events, showing and sharing photos produced when working together as a group, as well as SEO and analytics.

When a member joins, Meetup asks that person to list interests. When a new group starts, the Meetup system will send an email to general members in the immediate geographical area. Say you signed up and listed photography as one of your interests. You’ll receive an email that says: “Hey, you said you like photography. Well here’s a new photography group you should check out.” This can help a new group get off the ground, because you’ve now got ready-made participants with an interest in– and who have been alerted about– a new group.

Peer Support

Jason Etzel, a photographer who also works in the photo industry in a sales/marketing capacity, has attended Meetups in the past. “The concept of the Meetup is by no means new,” he explains. “The Meetup does everything that photographic groups have done for years, but the Meetup.com website is where technology truly enhances what was [done in the past]. Photographers used to meet to share ideas, their work, and of course network.”

“With the Meetup.com website these events can happen at any moment of the day and your work will be seen by more than a room full of people,” Jason says. “In many ways Meetup has given photographers the thing they crave and dread the most…instant praise or criticism. We all need another set of eyes and our peers to bounce ideas off of,” he adds.

Bay Area Renegades

Martha Blanchfield, (www.renegade-pr.com) photographer and PR professional uses Meetup to bring San Fransisco photography professionals together. “I set-up a Renegade Photo Shoots Bay Area (http://www.meetup.com/Renegade-Photo-Shoots-Bay-Area/) in September 2009. At the time, the Bay Area had at least 20 photography groups. Now it tracks more than 45. It’s crowded here, but interest is strong. Renegade Photo Shoot events occur about twice a month and 90% of them have an education backbone to them—an educational workshop, a panel presentation, a software tips and tricks session, etc.,” she says.

Martha adds: “The Meetup system holds the group together on the Web, but it’s up to the organizer to deliver a quality event or meet-up. As groups mature, there is a reputation to manage; word gets out about great programs, speakers or organizers. Going in, Renegade already had a ‘flavor’ to uphold. Within this online community of Meetups, Renegade has been able to carve out a strong identity that really sets us apart from other photography Meetups. It’s great when a new person joins and comments, ‘I’ve heard about your group’ or ‘I love what you are doing and I want to be a Renegade!’”

At Renegade Meetups, pro shooters are brought in to share with the group what they do. It allows members to try new things in a familiar framework with their peers. Martha says it is imperative that Meetup attendees have take-away education points, a chance to work aside a lead instructor, to mix and learn from peers, and to walk away with a variety of photos the member would not otherwise have had the chance to create. “But the biggest kicker for our group is to be sure there is a ‘Renegade’ component in every program,” she adds.

One example is “Arm Candy on the Tarmac”—a campy high style strobe lighting workshop held in a hangar and tarmac. In this instance, not only was the group granted permission to shoot at a place where few can get access (in a hangar and working airfield), but we also had a world speed record-breaking plane in the background. After a few set-ups, the pilot actually offered to let the model hop inside. Then he volunteered to do a flyover—the Renegade gang standing just off the runway photographing and nabbing video as he fly a few feet over the model’s head.

Long Island Photographers

Roni M. Chastain, RN, FACCE, LCCE (www.customphotonotes.com and www.nursingbabies.com) joined Meetup.com in 2003. When she found out that Adrienne Brand had started the Long Island Photography Meetup (http://www.meetup.com/LI-Photographers/) group in October 2005, Roni joined. In the beginning there were only five members, but the group has since grown to over 300 members. Roni became the assistant organizer in 2007, and this past June, she became the organizer of the group.

Roni says the group was even written up in Newsday as the most active group on Long Island.

“We meet about two to four times a month,” says Roni. Warm months take the group on shoots to various locations, and in the colder months, workshops are given by members with photographic knowledge to share. “We often go to a location to shoot, then go to lunch, then we all post our photos on our site,” Roni explains.

“We have done ‘photograph the photographer’, Photoshop/Lightroom workshops, as well as photographing air shows, lighting workshops, a private sunset tour of the Fire Island Lighthouse, a vertical tour of St. John the Divine, Snug Harbor in Staten Island, the Coney Island mermaid parade, and many more locations,” says Roni.

In addition to the photographic shoots, the Long Island Photography Meetup also gets together for social gatherings, including an annual dinner party to celebrate the founding of the group on the anniversary of its launch.

“We are currently working on our third annual photography exhibit. It will be held at Molloy College, with an opening reception on September 16. Ellery Samuels, one of our members, has organized the entire exhibit,” Roni explains.

Personal Enjoyment

“I started my Meetup to develop more connections with photographers in my own backyard. Aside from the group being a super circle of friends, we can tap one another when faced with camera and photography challenges,” Martha says.

“I have had great experience with doing the Meetups,” says Roni. “I have met some wonderful friends through this group, and personally, my photography skills have soared since joining the group. “I always find it amazing that we might have 15-25 members photographing the same area…yet we see such different things as photographers. I just love this group of passionate photographers.”

Go to meetup.com to learn more and to find Meetup groups in your area.

The Power of Photojournalism in War

By Jason Etzel

In 1832 Senator William Learned Marcy spoke the phrase, “To the victor belong the spoils.” Although first spoken (or at least documented) this was not a new concept by any means for those who won a battle of any kind. With a victory you could design how it would be viewed to those alive [at the time] as well future generations who would read and learn what you left behind as history of this battle. This meant that selective editing could always be done by the victor, filtering words, omitting particular events or details, artistic renderings showing how they wanted the victory to be recorded.

And in 1832 this was still true, until technology changed how history would be written—by both those who triumphed and those who felt defeat—by the invention of the camera, it would now be seen unchanged. In the world we live in today, doctored images are common knowledge, we know now what is seen may or may not have been really there. For hundreds of years historical figures were seen only as their statues or oil painted portraits perceived them to be. Battles were drawn showing honor and courage without really showing tragedy, violence, or loss.

In 1839 when the camera was first shown to the public, everything became real and an instrument in the field of journalism. The first war images are credited to an anonymous American who took a number of daguerreotypes during the Mexican-American war in 1847, and for the first time the face of the soldier was seen. The first known war photographer was Carol Popp de Szathmari who took photos of various officers in 1853 and landscapes where battle took place in 1854 during the Crimean War. However it was in 1861 that a portrait photographer in New York City named Mathew Brady changed the world of photography and journalism as we know it.

Having mastered the new art of photography from his time studying under the skilled daguerreotypist Samuel Morse, Brady had a thriving portrait photography studio. His subjects included numerous historical figures including past and then present Presidents of the United States of America. When the first shots were fired of the American Civil War in 1861, and against the wishes of friends and family, Brady put the essentials of his studio into a wagon and made his way to the battlefield at Bull Run. At Bull Run Brady took images of the war-torn landscape of destroyed buildings and bridges as well as the dead littering the countryside.

At times he was so close he was nearly captured by the Confederate soldiers. This was not a commissioned painting, nor an article being written for a newspaper, to be released to the public. These were images being taken, processed, and printed from where it all happened and they spoke louder than any cannon fired during any war. Through the course of the Civil War, Mathew Brady and his team of photographers captured the bloodiest battles as well as the faces of the men who fought on both sides.

War was no longer a distant battlefield; it was piles of dead soldiers and a country tearing itself apart. Many feared on both sides that the images showing war would cause both an escalation to stop or continue the war. Photography became a weapon itself, as many photos were staged with bodies moved into positions to manipulate public perception of battles.

As the years passed so did the purposes of photography and war. It was used for reconnaissance, intimidation showing strength of arms and new weaponry, and even to confirm the deaths of famous figures such as Dale Titler’s photograph of the downed plane of the WWI German Ace Manfred von Richtofen more commonly known as “The Red Baron” to discourage the German people and lower moral.

The chaos and confusion of battle was illustrated to the world with Robert Capa’s images from the landing at Normandy for the D-Day invasion of Europe. Joe Rosenthal’s “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima” and Alfred Eisenstaedt’s “V-J day in Times Square” have also become timeless images showing triumph and victory on distant shores as well as at home.

During the war in Vietnam, newspaper correspondent and columnist Joseph Galloway often fought alongside the troops he covered with his cameras, documenting the conflict around him.

Perhaps one of the most famous images of the century came from Eddie Adams with his portrait of an execution of a prisoner of war in 1968. It led to not only a Pulitzer Prize for Adams, but many claimed it changed the balance and political opinions of the war in Vietnam.

Nearly 150 years after Mathew Brady set out to capture the American Civil War, photojournalism still continues to advance, educate, and at times manipulate conflicts worldwide. Just as Andrew Jackson used paintings and monuments to tell stories of victory and triumph, leaders today use the press in all of it’s forms—particularly photography—to show the frozen moments in time that they want remembered.

Sometimes they can immortalize a great achievement and cement your place in history, however it can also backfire as President George W. Bush found out in 2003. By flooding the media with images of him on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln with a banner reading: “Mission Accomplished” many would believe the war ended that day in the Fall of 2003, however the conflict remains and now the banner is a mere punch line for a joke, and a large part of his presidential legacy.

Today’s media is no longer limited to just words, images, and video but also can include computer graphic based animations and renderings. For most, the portrait of Barack Obama altered by Shepard Fairey is considered a sign of change, others saw it as a violation of a law on the copyright of AP photographs. All the same it became part of everyday culture and awareness around the world.

The photojournalists are the eyes and the ears for the world. On this Veteran’s Day, it is important to remember and be grateful for those people who have been the eyes and the ears for us all—and the sacrifices they made to do so.

: Civil War photographer Mathew B. Brady, self portrait circa 1875.

: Robert Capa, famous for the photos he took of the troops storming the beach on D-Day. Photograph by Gerda Taro.

: Joe Rosenthal. Famed for his Pulitzer prize winning image “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima”.

: Eddie Adams. Photographer known for the Pulitzer prize winning image of the shooting of a prisoner during the Vietnam war.

? Jason Etzel is a working photographer who is well respected in the photographic industry today. For 15 years he has worked for companies such as Unique Photo, B&H, and Dyna-Lite, providing sales, education, and research development of photographic products. In addition, he is also a frequent contributor to photographic publications such as Photo Insider and other photographic blogs. Even though he is based out of New Jersey, Jason is frequently seen from coast to coast at photographic events discussing the history of photography, where it is today, and where he hopes it is going tomorrow. Look for future articles by contributor Jason Etzel on Picture-soup.com.