Calling Documentary Photographers

RyanS

First, I apologize if this is considered off-topic. I feel I'm taking a bit of a risk sharing this here. The people in this forum are my target audience, and I'm only suggesting it because I really care about the work you do. I'm curious if anyone here would be willing to start a co-op blog for documentary/street/pj/creative photography. The purpose would be to publish our photographs to the general public, not generate C&C between photographers.

The hope is that by working together we can generate a lot more traffic (eyeballs on our photographs) than working individually. It would also help with SEO. Right now a lot of us have personal blogs. This wouldn't replace that. It could be a helpful way to drive traffic to our personal blogs/sites.

• Goal: Get more eyeballs to see our work.
• Target: General public, not just photographers.
• Who: Photographers who work under the umbrella of "reality photography." (BD's definition)
• How: Building a central blog that acts as a clearing house to the public for new work in the genre.
• Why: Because we are stronger together than apart.

Details: Just: your photographs, your text, your name, your bio, and your links back to your blog or site (or not, as you see fit). No ads, spam, cost, jerks, arguments, etc. This would be a "public facing" view, not a photographer-on-photographer deathmatch.

Is this an idea you love or hate?

bfjr

Let me chew on it.
Who funds?
Is this not like Google+ Communities?

RyanS

bfjr wrote: »

Let me chew on it.
Who funds?
Is this not like Google+ Communities?

I already host a bunch of sites on several servers. It isn't a big lift for me to add another site. They are already a fixed cost. I've had them for about 15 years now. The only unplanned out of pocket for me is the domain registration, which is like $10/year. I think I can handle that. The rest is just time. The only risk to cost would be if the site suddenly became ultra-popular and we started getting 100k+ views a day. That scenario would require some means of paying for it. Honestly, I think we'd be lucky to generate 300-400 views a day. Attracting 1000 contributors to the site seems unlikely. We would be lucky to get 10. Realistically, probably between 3-6. I'm not dreaming big here. Maybe I should be?

This would be a stand-alone wordpress installation with the regular array of interesting plugins, etc. Not google+ communities or something. Dedicated server, dedicated resources, etc. I think it needs to work like an actual multi-contributor publishing site. The more professional looking the better.

-Ryan

kixsand

Very smart Ryan.

Good stuff!

RyanS

I am not sure it is a smart idea yet or not. Starting something like this is hard. I'm hoping we can create a shared vision - not a one person vision. The only thing I'm bringing to the table right now is the goal: Increase the number of people who see our work. How we do that is really up to whoever wants to help start it. If no one else steps up to help the idea dies right here. I have to be okay with that. To get it off the ground will require 2-3 dedicated individuals who believe in the photograph, not in watermarks, kudos, accolades, or something meaningless. I'm looking for people who truly love photography.

Do you know the answer to one of these questions? Then please consider hoping on board.

• Are contributor positions invite only or open to any photographer?
• Is there a post rating/scoring system?
• Do we force people to upload images to the site, or allow linking to external sites?
• Do we allow anonymous nick names or do we expect contributors to use their real names?
• Do we have contests or keep it more open? Do we encourage themes or just let it go where it wants?
• How do you want it to look?
• What do you want to call it?
• Do we delete posts that don't conform to a strict policy, or is what allowed more relaxed?

michswiss

I can appreciate your interest in having a site dedicated to documentary photography. There are several groups that work collaboratively on projects much as you discussed in your original post. I'll look up some examples for you when I'm back at my desk. But a lot, if not most of what you've described in the most recent is pretty much what we should be doing here on DGrin.

If you're serious about creating this space, then I would suggest using this forum to develop the ideas, the visual themes, the topics the group would explore. Collaborate on the "draft" images and sets here and take the finished works to the group's presentation site.

Matt518

It sounds like you want to do something similar to http://vervephoto.wordpress.com/ or http://flakphoto.com/. You might contact those and see what kind of traffic they're getting to give you an idea of what you're getting into.

kixsand

Something along the lines of this site?

http://www.street-photographers.com/

RyanS

Those look like collectives. I think if we wanted to start a collective we'd be facing some pretty stiff competition. Maybe I chose the wrong words. Instead of co-op I probably should have said "WordPress site where multiple photographers can log in and post photos and links back to their blog (or not)." For those of you who are playing the SEO game this will really help. It will also generally drive traffic to your stuff. It wouldn't be a place where you'd post everything, just a taste of the best things. Enough to entice visitors to bookmark the site and check in every now and then. It doesn't replace dgrin at all. It isn't even directly complimentary really. It is more complimentary to your actual smugmug site (or blog, or wherever you publish your work). The site's ability to drive traffic is related to how high the bar is set for quality, and how often that quality work is posted.

I'm in San Jose next week for work (so no dgrin), flight leaves in an hour. Adobe HQ here I come! If someone decides they want to do this blog thing please PM me. I think the general idea is out there. Now to see if it has any legs...