Linda Dobosenki, Silverwood Park, 2.5 hours
Today, I got to attend Silverwood Park’s Camera Club, which was very exciting. The group is extremely large and diverse, and there were so many new people to meet. Right away I saw familiar faces from when I came to the “Walk with a Photographer” event a few weeks before. I got a very warm welcome from Linda and everyone, and was excited to see what was in store for this month’s gathering.
Right off the bat Linda talked about the upcoming events at Silverwood, like the pinhole workshop that I’ll be helping her with. Then, we moved into a group critique. People can bring a few photos on a flash drive, and we all look at the images on a large TV and give our feedback. People asked very good questions, gave constructive feedback, and I got to hear a lot of great stories of how people took the photographs that they brought. There was a great diversity in people’s interests, which is so important to a club like this. A lot of people were really into gear, and a lot of people just cared about a good image. In the critiques we talked about composition, cropping, and people to look at for inspiration. I got to show a few of my images from my recent body of work, and explained the project. Everybody had great questions and I really loved talking to them about my work. It was such a different experience than an MCAD critique, and to have this new audience with a completely fresh perspective was a very valuable experience. I really enjoyed the discussion we had about my work, and the rest of the photographers that showed theirs.
After this, we had a guest speaker—she was one of the Park system’s new media employee, who does everything from photography to website design for Silverwood and other parks. She gave a nice talk about her experience as an undergrad photojournalism student, and how an intensive residency program in Mexico changed her practice. Her stories about her process and mentorship in the program were really interesting, and it was great to hear about this kind of art education from such a different perspective than I’m used to.