Old Friends and New: Irish PPA Fall Conference
October/09/2007 Ireland Journal
There are only a few volunteers I know who are as passionate about the benefits of trade association membership as Ireland's Gerry O'Leary, a highly acclaimed architectural photographer from Dublin. I first met Gerry at PPA's Imaging USA several years ago. A year ago this month I once again met Gerry at the UK Master Photographers Association Awards weekend in Coventry, England, where I was invited to give a business program and assist at the awards presentation in my capacity as PPA's Chairman of the Board. Gerry was busy keeping lots of balls in the air as president of the UK group. This year Gerry assumed duties as president of the Irish PPA, so it was no surprise to find him hard at work on Association business, as you can see in the photo above. He continues to be just as relentless about urging Irish photographers to take advantage of the educational opportunities that associations provide as he is to get them involved as volunteers.
Jerry is one of several Irish friends I have made in recent years. Also present at the IPPA conference in Athlone was Jerry O'Carroll from Waterford, whom I have visited with in both the U.S. and in England, and Maria Dunphy, who has attended several PPA Women's Retreats, including this year's Chicks Who Click conference in the Bahamas. More about Maria and her business in a new post. To Jim's and my great delight, also on hand was Alan Hastings, a photographer who attended our week-long Art and Business of Photography class at our Annville studio back in 1993. In 1986 Alan had immigrated from Ireland to New York, where he had taught high school chemistry at Fordham Prep and later began working part time at the nearby studio of Rick Rustiano. By 1993 photography had become his passion, so Alan began working at it full time. Eventually he married, had children, and four years ago the family returned to Ireland and opened a studio in Westport, County Mayo. It was wonderful to talk about old times with Alan, who now enjoys both U.S. and Irish citizenship. Jim snapped this photo of Alan and me.
The audiences for my two programs couldn't have been more cordial. I sensed that their interest in management issues parallels that which of late has grown so strong in America. Not surprisingly, the Irish are experiencing all of the challenges of U.S. photographers — from technological changes to prosumers who produce digital images that are "good enough." Just like Americans, they are learning that clever marketing is no longer "good enough" . . . you must understand how to manage money, people and time in order to succeed in today's challenging marketplace, so they hung in there for every step of my "12-Step Program." Many commented that they found the benchmarks published by PPA's Studio Management Services to be very helpful. On day two I presented my "Boutique Studio Revolution" program. I believe the Irish audience got a kick out of hearing a presentation that won't be debuted in America until Imaging USA in January.
As Gerry O'Leary so passionately pointed out, anytime photographers get together what they learn is priceless. One of the aspects of the conference that I enjoyed most was a session that featured two of IPPA's "Bright Young Things" . . . younger members who have demonstrated their photographic competence by passing their IPPA "Associate" qualification. Young and old alike learned from portrait photographer Emma Clarke, who works with her father Paddy, and who displays, among other skills, a mastery of lighting technique that is rarely achieved by young photographers in the U.S. Emma is shown below with architectural photographer Gareth Byrne, who demonstrated why veteran commercial photographers say he is giving them a run for their money.
Veteran photographers were ably represented as well: Wedding photographer Tony Tang, provided insight into creating digital albums and treated everyone to a slideshow of a complete wedding and the resulting album; Suzanne Toal explained the recent changes she has made in her business (see previous post); and Neil Warner demonstrated that his business sense is as strong as his award-winning corporate photography. Suzanne and Neil are shown below during a Q&A session.
The conference also included two presentations of exceptional image collections. Ger McCarthy showed a variety of his favorite award-winning images, but none was as stunning as his photojournalistic series taken at Chernobyl, the site of the world's worst nuclear plant disaster, at an institution for children born with profound birth defects. His message about the power of photography to illuminate the need to act in the face of human suffering was clear . . . something that in fact his images have been used to do.
The second program was by Vincent O'Byrne, one of Europe's most honored fine art photographers, who presented over 50 prints that had achieved the coveted IPPA Diamond Award. It was wonderful to hear this master of composition and creativity remind us of the simple precepts that govern fine artistic design — fundamental lessons that today often are eclipsed by interest in technology. Many of the Diamond award-winners were created by Vincent himself, so take a moment to view his exceptional work by logging on to vincentobyrne.com.
As in America, women are flocking to the business of studio photography, so "we girls" had a lot to talk about between programs. We're already plotting a way to get together again. So I thought I thought I would close this entry with this "Circle of Friends" photo. From left, we are: Maria Dunphy of Kilkenny, Suzanne Toal of Monaghan, myself, Neda Collins of Eden Derry, and Tanya Crosbie of Dublin.
