...U of M Photography Club?

I joined the club in the Fall of last year. At the time the outgoing president handed the task of organizing the club to two sophomores. One, was a Caucasian girl who was an editor with the Michigan Daily and the other was a Singaporean guy.

I went for the first AGM and was excited that they were offering darkroom facilities to members. I had absolutely no experience in the darkroom, so I thought that it would be a chance for me to pick up some pointers for free. The Singaporean guy was really friendly and was excited to meet a fellow Asian who was really into the art.

Anyway, as the weeks went by, the only thing that the Caucasian girl talked about was the darkroom. The only organized thing we had was the darkroom hours. No outings, no photo critique sessions, zilch. I was getting really frustrated.

On top of that, the Caucasian girl was pretty overbearing and didn’t give much breathing space for the Singaporean to make decisions. Actually they were both equal in rank. More like co-presidents. Another thing about her was that she was so involved with her job at the Michigan Daily, that she didn’t make any effort to organize more activities other than hold dark room hours. She didnt even respond to emails. What a lamer.

Just think about it. How can you go and process prints when you don’t go take pictures? Dark Room processing is only a tiny part of photography. Most professionals in the field don’t even know how to use a dark room. So why was there so much emphasis on the use of the dark room? If there was more emphasis on picture taking techniques and no dark room use, I would have been totaly fine with it. Now it's more like a Dark Room club than a Photo Club.

I was so frustrated with the club up to a point where I even though of breaking off and starting a REAL Photography club.

Anyway, now the Caucasian girl and the Singaporean guy have disappeared and now all of a sudden I’m getting emails from a Caucasian guy who acts like he’s the President. He called for the AGM meeting and he’s been posting up dark room hours. I guess the Caucasian girl must have handed the club to him. The first activity they got to do was? Take a guess….yeah, have a dark room session. From the way things are going, I believe the club is going to be just a repeat of what it was last semester.

My boycott on the club is still in effect.