Photographers Exchange meeting in 2022 during COVID-19
I had a nice request from a photographic friend over the weekend about the photographic group that I am a member of that meets monthly called the Photographers Exchange. If any of them read this and I made a mistake, I hope they provide a correction.
It was stated about 18 years ago by Larry Vogel (photography artist represented by the Susan Spiritus Gallery in Newport Beach) and Larry Pribble, a non-art photographer who really enjoys photography. It is a really informal group meeting during which we have a chance to look at each other’s print and provide a group critique. We look at our prints and only prints; unlike some other group meetings there are no models to photograph, no studio lighting, no class, no lessons (except life lessons), a few rules of conduct, no officers, no minutes, no awards or merits, no judging, no limits except: bring up to 5 prints (not required to even matte these), sign up on the list to show the prints, when your turn occurs, then exhibit these, the attendees file past to inspect the prints and a subsequent give-and-take about what the others have to say. Concurrently enjoy the evening.
We meet once per month for three hours, while some individuals get together before hand to eat at a local pizza joint and perhaps drink some beer. We have a group that carpools in from Long Beach/South Bay, one who drives up from San Diego or others who just drop in. Many are the members are exhibiting artists, with a varied background. As an example; the late Frank Cancian had a one-person exhibit in the small gallery at the Irvine Fine Arts Center where we meet and had published his book & essay by the Uof New Mexico Press, and he was a professor-emeritus of Cultural Anthopology with Uof Irvine here in CA.
Over the years, with some donations, we have five easels with gallery lighting for the print display. Once per year we have an actual print exchange, in which you bring one print and you take one print. Usually we have this annual print-exchange meeting in conjunction with a pizza-pot-luck dinner.
Hopefully, you will find that something like this meeting might become a nice to set-up for an organization near you. You can get the word out to the local galleries and on social media to let the local photographers that it’s occurring.
Best regards,
Doug
Singular Images 
Thanks, Doug, for generously posting all the information about the exchange. It sounds like a terrific group and it’s quite an accomplishment to have it still going strong after all these years. The photographer’s exchange of prints is a particularly intriguing idea. I wish I weren’t such a wimp about driving that (shudder) 405 from my home down to Irvine. If I ever manage to get together a small core of photographers where I am in the San Fernando Valley area (is this a shameless case of my advertising on your site and showing painfully bad taste?), I would hope we could use your group as a model and as inspiration. You might want to dodge in anticipation of the questions from more photographers quizzing you for advice in setting up their group. Thanks again for all the specifics.
I ahve been coming, off and on (mostly on) to this group meeting for over 18 years. I ahve seen the meeting change and vary over the years, and I must say that overall the meetings are interesting and helpful to my photography. I love the natural landscape, call it Ansel Adams photography (also called “West Coast Photography” by east-coast photographers who wouldn’t know a tree if they tripped over one). But I must say that at the last meeting (yesterday) I found a real disdain in the group for the landscape photographs, not just mine, but everyone’s who presented any. There was much to do about images I couldn’t even see on the paper, and there seems to be a drift toward what I call travelogue type photography – “what I saw on my last trip to somewhere that you haven’t gone to”. I felt like I should get a ticket to somewhere in Tasmania so I can join the group. But back to my main comment…I know that landscape photography is pretty well done y now, and “another rock, another tree” picture is probably the most common out there, but there is a reason for that. The natural landscape has a pull on humans second only to the pull of other humans…I got interested in photography by the beauty nature, and I still am. If this group is bored with this subject matter, then we should address that, because otherwise I will stop bringing in my landscape images and boring the group. I have plenty of pictures of strangers in foreign countries that bore the hell out of me…I comne to this group for spome feedback on my images, and getting nothing is insulting…even worse than “I don’t like your images”, or, “I like landscapes, but your’s stink”. One more thing, I think the group got a little loose and flippant at the end of the meeting whalie viewing the last few presenters, which should stop. Either we limit the number of presenters to maybe 10 so we can spend more time on each and not try to rush the last few, or we need some more decorum (order) so as to not slight those who go last. Anyway, this my first blog (ever) and I hope I didn’t insult everyone who reads it. Thanks for reading, Roger