ABSTRACT

In 1899, a group of photographic societies and camera clubs in the north of England came together to form the Yorkshire Photographic Union. Soon after, five other photographic federations were founded by societies and clubs in Northumberland and Durham (1901), Scotland (1903), Lancashire and Cheshire (1905), the Midlands (1907), and East Anglia (1910). These umbrella organisations supported their federated members by coordinating the circulation of photographic materials, lecturers, and judges, and by organising joint meetings, outings, and competitions. At a time when formal photographic education was still in its infancy and largely open to professionals only, and in line with this period’s concerns with rational recreation and mutual support, the photographic federations fostered opportunities for a growing body of amateur photographers to learn from one another. This article reconstructs the largely under-researched emergence of these organisations, and asks what their educational project tells us about their understanding of how people ought to be taught and learn photography, and the values and meanings that they attached to these practices. It reveals that their vision was shaped not simply by a desire to combine instruction with sociability but, most fundamentally, by the recognition that the acquisition of theoretical and practical photographic knowledge depended on collaborative practices. The article argues that doing photography with others at the level of clubs and societies had brought them first to imagine, and then to realise, an educational infrastructure that conceptualised the transmission of photographic knowledge as a shared social responsibility supported by a cooperative network.

摘要

1899 年，英格兰北部的一组摄影协会和摄影俱乐部共同组成了约克郡摄影联盟。不久之后，诺森伯兰郡和达勒姆（1901 年）、苏格兰（1903 年）、兰开夏郡和柴郡（1905 年）、中部地区（1907 年）和东安格利亚（1910 年）的社团和俱乐部成立了另外五个摄影联合会。这些伞式组织通过协调摄影材料、讲师和评委的流通，以及组织联合会议、郊游和比赛来支持其联盟成员。在正规摄影教育还处于起步阶段，大部分只对专业人士开放的时期，符合这一时期对理性娱乐和相互支持的关注，摄影联合会为越来越多的业余摄影师提供了相互学习的机会。本文重构了这些组织在很大程度上研究不足的情况，并询问他们的教育项目告诉我们他们对人们应该如何学习和学习摄影的理解，以及他们对这些实践的价值观和意义。它揭示了他们的愿景不仅是由将教学与社交能力相结合的愿望塑造的，而且最根本的是，他们认识到理论和实践摄影知识的获得依赖于协作实践。这篇文章认为，在俱乐部和社团的层面上与其他人一起拍照让他们首先想象，然后意识到，