PRODIG digital photography news

The AOP is canvasing a survey…

Following on from the Hargreaves report, the Government have recognised that a small claims court which deals with copyright cases is needed. A consultation has been issued to which the AOP are replying.

Please complete a short survey to enable us to submit evidence to back up our reply.

Many thanks for your help.

Click on this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QTL2X66

 

Press Release: For immediate release 1 June 2011

Starts:

The Association of Photographers is pleased to confirm that it has sold the building it owned in Leonard Street and is now leasing space back, until it has found and purchased new, more suitable premises.

The sale was prompted by the Association’s decision in December 2010 to close the AOP Gallery this year, after 25 years of continuous operation and almost 13 of which at Leonard Street in order to focus on the core activities of the Association and be able to offer more to members.

With the growth of online galleries and other means of disseminating work, demand from members to use the Gallery has fallen to a trickle over the last few years, leading the Board to suggest that the resources required to keep it open, could be better channeled into other activities that provide far stronger benefits to the membership as a whole. The membership voted in favour of selling the building at a General Meeting in February this year.

The Association will continue to curate and produce exhibitions of members work, predominately through its Awards Shows. One of the benefits of closure will be that many new venues are now available to the Association through which partnerships can be built and where members could put on exhibitions, should they choose.

The Gallery will be closing at the beginning of August and the last show will be announced separately, later this week.

At the end of September this year, we will be holding a series of 3 new exhibitions that will run into Photo Month, each at a different location and each representing the winners of the Association’s Awards.

The first exhibition, presentation and Awards Evening will be The Photographers Awards at P3 in Marylebone. This will be followed by The Assistant Awards exhibition, presentation and Awards Evening, which will be held at the Hoxton Gallery. The third exhibition, presentation and Awards Evening will be The Open Awards and we are planning to hold this at the Truman Brewery. (More information will be provided separately)

We will continue to hold our monthly career talks, portfolio critiques and one-off seminars in suitable and appropriate spaces, borrowed or hired for the event.

Change can be difficult, but we believe that this opportunity presents us with a new and exciting time for the Association which will allow us to focus more on the activities that benefit our entire membership and encourage more to join us.

The relocation of the Association is a first step to providing increased benefits to our membership, better value for money and more activity in the areas that our members value the most. Our core values of promoting, protecting and educating have remained relevant throughout the Association’s history and we expect them to be so even more in the future. The business of photography has never been tougher and there are huge pressures facing our members and the industry as a whole. It is fundamentally important that we continue to support our members in every way we can.

Ends.