The BPPA 19/20 Chair’s Report

Despite the unforeseen global COVID19 pandemic and resulting negative effects on our industry, The BPPA have had yet another very busy and productive year with success in many projects, from an all-round stirling team effort by the BPPA’s elected Board members in what have been very challenging circumstances for us all. 

The Chair wishes to express his personal gratitude to all of our Board members for giving their time, often at very short notice in attending emergency online meetings and quickly adapting to an ever and fast-changing situation conducted with outstanding professionalism, commitment and teamwork. -As always. 

The projects that we undertook have not only given our ever-growing membership excellent value for money, they have also promoted the highest ethical, technical and creative standards from within the profession, raising awareness and appreciation from within our industry and outside it, in line with The BPPA ‘Mission Statement’. 

Below is a list of the Board’s activities and achievements throughout the year 19/20:

1. We’ve actively recruited Board members based in the regions to give our UK-wide membership confidence that we are representative of them with direct points of contact to the Board regionally. 

2. The BPPA’s Assignments 2019 exhibition was a stunning success story attracting thousands of visitors to three beautiful and unique galleries showing in London, Stoke-on-Trent and Bradford. Also, the introduction of guest speakers from within our membership has proven hugely successful with insightful and candid talks to big audiences during the exhibitions. So successful has Assignments been, our regular sponsors have very kindly offered increased funding for The BPPA to expand the Assignments exhibitions even further into hosting workshops and seminars creating information hubs for our members, those studying press photography and the general public to attend. 

3. We held a members’ vote on a proposal for a new level of Associate membership which had a huge vote in favour for. We now have a panel of Board members working on this project who’ve been liaising with a number of education establishments keen to work with us. Board members have already given talks to photojournalism students on their own work and that of The BPPA and continue to do so.

4. We attended the 2019 Picture Editors’ Guild Awards with our members. This event is an excellent networking evening for our organisation. 

5. The continuation of The BPPA’s ‘Spotlight’ series, highlighting the outstanding and diverse work of our membership through this online gallery. 

6. We hosted Assignments Live in London with a tribute to John Downing from his son Bryn and horse racing specialist Alan Crowhurst.

7. We invested corporate sponsorship in The BPPA co-creator’s John Downing book ‘Legacy’.

8. Through the organisation of the Snapperweb Christmas party raffle, The BPPA Board helped to raise a total of £2,816.00 for the National Autistic Society. 

9. We instituted discounted subscriptions on newspaper publications. 

10. We issued important guidance on the ‘Four Cs’ of metadata to coincide with Google’s Licensable Images.

11. We began work on a complete rebuild of the existing website which is currently ongoing.

12. We intervened in a number of issues relating to freedom of the press including; Downing Street pooling of images, assaults on press photographers during COVID19, private security and police abuse of powers, as well as News UK copyright grab contracts. These have included publication of official statements from The BPPA and interviews with media representatives. 

** Please note that the following points all relate to COVID19 and The Board’s work throughout the ongoing pandemic **

13. Outside of our monthly Board meetings, we held fortnightly online meetings specific to Covid19 as the situation was an ever-changing environment. The meetings have proven vital in quick Board decisions and for giving regular updates and useful resources to our members. This included the creation of a Covid19-specific resources webpage.

14. Despite a minor halt in production of press cards, our Membership Secretary and Secretary have done and continue to do an outstanding job of dealing with all new applications and press card renewals as the UKPCA press card became essential to being recognised key workers during the pandemic. 

15. We have given six months of payment holidays to our members suffering loss of work as a direct effect of Covid19.

16. We’ve built good working relationships with a host of organisations including; The National Union of Journalists, the Society of Editors, the Sports Journalists Association, the News Media Coalition, the Football Association, the Premier League, Football Data Co Ltd, the English Football League, Premiership Rugby and Premier League football clubs comms officers. It has been a pleasure working with everyone. 

17. Liaised with national football and rugby organisations from a variety of leagues in the creation of Pool C enabling not only members of The BPPA, but also non-member license holders to access ongoing Project Restart fixtures being played behind closed doors in stadia nationally. Countless hours of online meetings have been conducted both in consulting with our members and all relevant organisations and clubs in the creation and continued smooth operation of Pool C.

18. The BPPA Board conducted over 160 Premiership League Pool C draws during the 2019-2020 season finish, in addition to four Pool C draws for FA Cup semi finals and finals held at Wembley stadium played behind closed doors. All draws were announced before being conducted live on Zoom, with results posted on social media immediately afterwards to add transparency to all interested parties.

19. Through the work of The BPPA Board in representing the best interests of our members and of press photography, we have increased our membership number over the 19/20 year by 117 new members (and counting) which brings our total to 420 at the time of writing. The welcome additional funds will be reinvested in new innovative projects.

20. Fortunately the Covid19 pandemic never halted operations of The BPPA Board, we responded well in working together and already have more exciting projects currently in their planning stages for our members throughout 2021.

Thank you to those organisations who work with us, the Assignments speakers and most importantly, our membership for their continued confidence in The BPPA during these uncertain and challenging times.

Onwards and upwards for a brighter and successful 2021. 

Lindsey Parnaby

Chair
the BPPA

An open response to a recent social media post about gender in press photography

The BPPA has come in for some criticism from a group called Women Photographers of the UK about what they refer to as the uneven representation of women in the current Assignments 2019 exhibition. You can read their open letter here on Medium. This is a response from Lynne Cameron, Vice Chair of The BPPA.
 
Dear Suzanne, Anna and Susannah
 
We would like to reassure those expressing concerns about the representation of women in our industry that we are very aware of the issues and are currently working on projects to support and help current and future female members of the organisation. We were disappointed that these concerns were not directed to The BPPA in the first instance as we welcome all constructive criticism. It is one of our core values to work transparently with all parties in any matter related to photography.
 
The issue of gender imbalance is a complex one, not just related to photography but to wider society.
 
The association is proactively working to improve such imbalances. As an example The BPPA elected me as Vice Chair and Julie Edwards as our Social Media and Website Editor at last year’s AGM. We are both long-standing professional photographers who have first hand experience of gender related issues within our industry. Julie and I are bringing our experiences, energy and ideas to The Board and welcome further positive constructive comments which could help address this wider topic.
 
In relation to the exhibition (it is not a competition) we would like to reassure those concerned that images were curated by highly regarded members of the profession who were deliberately not given any information about the name or gender of the photographers in order to make the selection process ‘about the images’ as far as is humanly possible.
 
We are extremely proud of Assignments – an exhibition designed to promote and highlight the amazing work that is being produced by our members.
 
The Board of The BPPA welcomes constructive input from anyone who wants to help to promote and inspire great photography. If you have ideas on what more can be done on the issues raised then please get in contact with me or any of the other members of our Board.
 
Lynne Cameron
 
Vice Chair, The BPPA
 
 
 
Statistics:
 
1. The BPPA has 321 paid-up members of whom 40 are women – which is approximately 12.46%.
2. 16 photographers joined or rejoined in order to take part in Assignments 2019 of whom 25% were women.
3. 161 photographers entered photographs for Assignments 2019 of whom 18 were women – 11.2%
4. 1,351 photographs were entered of which 148 were entered by women – 10.95%
5. 110 photographs were selected for exhibition of which 10 were by women – 9.3%

Introducing the Board: Anthony Devlin

I have worked as a professional photographer since leaving university in 2002, starting my career in the darkroom at the Tameside Reporter in 2001 before joining the NCTJ Press Photography course, which led to a position at the Gloucestershire Echo in 2003.
In 2004 I won the Lord’s/MCC Young Sports Photographer of the year Bursary and following a year of cricket photography at Lord’s, I was employed by South West News Service (SWNS) in Bristol and covered news and sport across the South West of England.
In 2006 I accepted a staff position with The Press Association and relocated to London where I covered a variety of news, sport, showbiz and royalty for 10 years until August 2015, when I left PA to relocate to Manchester. I continue to work as a freelance photographer for numerous editorial and commercial clients.
 

Introducing the Board: Neil Turner

I am UK based with well over thirty years experience as a news, editorial and corporate photographer.
Between 1994 and 2008 I was a staff photographer with The Times Supplements. Since 2008 I have had a portfolio career which also involves shooting editorial and corporate assignments, writing about and teaching photography as well as working as a photo editor on very large sports events with world class teams of photographers.
I have been on the Board of The British Press Photographers’ Association since its reformation in 2003 – holding the offices of Website Editor and Vice Chairman for many years before becoming the Association Secretary in 2016. My two proudest moments in that time were representing The BPPA at the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the press in February 2012 and the publication of Five Thousand Days in 2005.
Since 1999 I have published websites and blogs offering my insights and experiences to anyone who wants to read them. The technique pages of dg28.com became very successful and lead to invites to lead seminars and teach location lighting and workflow in the UK, Europe and north America.

Introducing the board: Jonathan Buckmaster

My first interest in photography was at the start of my teenage years when, with my brand new Russian made Zenith camera, I would spend hours walking around my home tome of Marlow-on-Thames photographing everything and anything in hazy black and white, sending the film off and awaiting the prints with mounting excitement about a week later.
After getting a job at a well known chemists on their photographic counter, I had access to all the film and processing I could need, this was all during the late 1970’s and early 80’s where unions, strikes and politics dominated the news and Mrs Thatcher was Prime Minister.
After saving up and buying my first ‘proper’ camera, a Nikon FM, nothing could stop me. In between shifts on the photographic counter, I would take the train into London, photographing demos, political rallies, celebrity arrivals and the departure of the task force to the Falklands in Portsmouth.
It was soon after that I learned of the full time Photojournalism course at Sheffield where they took 12 students a year and trained them in the basics of press photography. I was lucky enough to be accepted and spent a hectic year under the influence of our madcap, but inspiring tutor, Paul Delmar.
It so happened that Sheffield was the centre of the Miner’s dispute as the National Union of Mineworkers had their HQ in Sheffield and the nearby colliery, Orgreave, was just a couple of miles from the college.  One Monday in June, there was rumoured to be a mass confrontation between the Police and the miners, so I decided to not turn up for my exam that morning and  headed to the colliery.  The scene was of a medieval battle with horses, wooden stakes, burning debris and bloody fighting – It turned out to be ‘Bloody Monday’ which was the pitched battle between the Police and miners and where Arthur Scargill, the President of the NUM was felled by a blow from a Police truncheon.  There were only three of us there at that moment and I was soon met by a flustered Daily Star photographer who had just arrived and who had missed this pivotal moment. I was happy to give him my films and my pictures appeared the the Daily Star the next day with a fee of £50. I was berated by the lecturers the next day for not turning up, by taken aside by Paul Delmar and told that he would have done exactly the same and well done.
At the time, the course was recognised by local papers as the place to go for trainee press photographers and I got a job immediately on leaving the course at the newly reinstated Kentish Independent newspaper in Woolwich, run by two journalist brothers who bought the ailing newspaper. After a truly mad year on this effective start-up, which involved folding several thousand sheets of the paper as a printing contract had not been checked to include folding and sorting, delivering them to newsagents as that contract had been forgotten, making our own adverts to fill blank pages as we had no advertisers, hiring models to work as receptionists, also employing Boy George’s brother as my fellow photographer and all night parties in the office most nights, I knew this was the life for me….
It was all too good to be true and the paper folded within a year, but I managed to get on to a  big London local paper, The South London Press, which propelled me into the day to day life of local newspaper coverage, developing film and printing each time I returned from a job .  Having a large and vibrant area to cover, it was great experience. 
Not long afterwards I left and started to freelance for all the main London papers at the same time, The Evening News, Evening Standard, and the London Daily News with occasional shifts for the Daily Express, just along the corridor from the Standard on the 2nd floor of the their building in Fleet Street.
After the Evening News and the London Daily News folded, I found myself working almost exclusively for the Daily Express. As the new recruit, I was spending most of my time picking up all the last minute and unsocial hours jobs, but it was a great feeling to be working for a national newspaper, with some renowned staff photographers.
One of them, John Downing, took me under his wing and I was very grateful for his help. He also told me of a new organisation, the PPA which had been recently started up to represent British Press Photographers and to show their work in exhibitions.  I was persuaded to join, but could immediately see the benefits of actually getting members of the profession to other face to face, before the internet, even for a social occasion. 
After ten years at the Express, I was offered a coveted staff job which I hastily accepted.  Since the beginning of my career at the Daily Expres, some 31 years later, I have been lucky enough to cover some of the major news events together with wars, disaster, famine, crime, politics and more or less everything else this job throws at you as well as travelling around the world to do it.
During this this time, the BPPA was formed by dedicated press photographers determined in it’s vital role of representing our combined voices and recognising our joint talent by showing the general public the breadth, diversity and quality of our work in the form of regular exhibitions and competitions which has achieved national recognition.  
I was happily coerced into joining the BPPA at a late stage, but again see the need for a professional body to represent us in these changing times and I am happy to be a part of this important organisation..

New Board Member for Social Media & Web

We’d like to introduce you to the new board member who will all be playing an active role in making this yet another successful year for the BPPA and British Press Photography.
I am Julie Edwards and I have been a press photographer for just over 10 years, working mainly in the Entertainment Industry.
I have already introduced a series to the BPPA website called “Members Talks” but my second task is to ensure that all the new (and old) board members write an introduction or “about me” focused not on their photography but what they believe the BPPA should be and how they will help achieve that. It’s not fair that I ask others to do this without putting pen to paper myself first.
With this in mind, what follows is not the normal “I’m a photographer because I grew up surrounded by photography” type introduction  (although I did as my dad was in newspaper distribution and I was surrounded by all the papers every day).
At school I was a maths head and started my career just as the desktop computer revolution started. My father said “computers are the future”, so I combined my maths and design talent in the drawing office running computer aided design systems. This career grew and I ended up as a consultant selling and implementing some of the most advanced design solutions on PC’s, starting my own software company in the 90’s as the internet era was in it’s infancy. Luckily I was working with one of the largest organisations in the CAD field whose investment in Marketing and Sales training was second to none which I benefited from greatly. In about 2007 I gave this all up with a huge change in direction to return to my first love: photography. Well not just photography, press photography, using my sales and marketing skills to get into positions quite quickly that normally take many years in the industry.
Why do I detail this past? My portfolio for the BPPA is Web & Social media. I have a past well rooted in technology and problem solving, anyone who knows me knows I have some of the most bleeding edge and automated workflows possible. This gives me the right background to help to bring the BPPA right up to date into a modern, forward looking, helpful association that press photographers think vital to be part of.
UK Press photographers are not always the most creative but they are without doubt the most versatile, quick thinking and resourceful photographers on the planet. Our work is seen every single day by millions of people. No other group of photographers have their work this visible and yet, only last week, on a train, I was likened to being “no higher than an Estate Agent”. Why do we have this reputation? Probably because the only time we are in the limelight is when it is negative (privacy intrusion etc). The BPPA needs to help change that, it needs to show the world what we do and the web is the perfect platform for this. 
Julie