Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day - Is it dying? Can it be saved?

[cygielski]

After a few years of initial growth, WPPD has been in sharp decline. The team in charge of it seems to have left it on autopilot, and the number of participants has fallen below levels last seen in 2003. Can this trend be reversed? This was a community effort at first, with lots of excitement around it, but now seems to have turned into a dead-end project run by a closed group of people with little interest in getting the word out to people not already into it.
I want the project to thrive, to spread the joy of pinhole photography to those who haven't had a chance to get to know it yet. I have taken part in it from the start in 2001, both as part of the original organizing team, as a workshop organizer and as a regular participant. I inquired a few years ago about helping with it, but was told the team didn't need any help. I have seen no progress since then, and have only watched the project continue to decline.

(Left scale - number of participants, right scale - participanting countries)

Just so there's no misunderstanding - I don't want to disparage the people running it. They have maintained things, and have clearly shelled out for the server space needed to keep it going - and they deserve thanks for that. I'm just looking for ideas of how to get the project back on its feet despite the organizers' apparent disinterest in growing it beyond its current limited scope.
I think that in order to make the project more attractive to new participants, the website needs a serious revamp, both in terms of look and functionality. More server space is also needed for larger images - these days a 700px maximum is not sufficient even for mobile devices. These are things the current organizers have a lock on, and without their willingness to open up to more outside participation, not much can be done. However, the event can be promoted better, and this is where I see the community's role - I'd like to see if we can organize a separate group of volunteers to spearhead a real promotional campaign for WPPD 2023.
My idea is to do some guerilla marketing for it - mainly sending press releases both locally and regionally, as well as hitting up photo bloggers, vloggers, TikTokkers and whatnot. Ideally also from countries where pinholie photography hasn't taken off yet. I want to see if there are any others who'd be interested in pitching in. Any other ideas for promoting pinhole photography around the project? Let's start a conversation, maybe something will grow out of it. After all, that's how the whole thing got started in the first place.
 

[samstevens]

On 2/3/2023 at 5:14 AM, cygielski said:

I want the project to thrive, to spread the joy of pinhole photography to those who haven't had a chance to get to know it yet.

Why?

[httpwww.photo.netbarry]

On 2/12/2023 at 8:06 AM, samstevens said:

Why?

Not to speak for the OP, but just guessing, he probably loves pin-hole cameras and photos, and has identity vested in keeping that group going.  It seems the lack of response here suggests his passion is falling on deaf ears.

[httpwww.photo.netbarry]

On 2/3/2023 at 5:14 AM, cygielski said:

After a few years of initial growth, WPPD has been in sharp decline. The team in charge of it seems to have left it on autopilot, and the number of participants has fallen below levels last seen in 2003. Can this trend be reversed? This was a community effort at first, with lots of excitement around it, but now seems to have turned into a dead-end project run by a closed group of people with little interest in getting the word out to people not already into it.
I want the project to thrive, to spread the joy of pinhole photography to those who haven't had a chance to get to know it yet. I have taken part in it from the start in 2001, both as part of the original organizing team, as a workshop organizer and as a regular participant. I inquired a few years ago about helping with it, but was told the team didn't need any help. I have seen no progress since then, and have only watched the project continue to decline.

(Left scale - number of participants, right scale - participanting countries)

Just so there's no misunderstanding - I don't want to disparage the people running it. They have maintained things, and have clearly shelled out for the server space needed to keep it going - and they deserve thanks for that. I'm just looking for ideas of how to get the project back on its feet despite the organizers' apparent disinterest in growing it beyond its current limited scope.
I think that in order to make the project more attractive to new participants, the website needs a serious revamp, both in terms of look and functionality. More server space is also needed for larger images - these days a 700px maximum is not sufficient even for mobile devices. These are things the current organizers have a lock on, and without their willingness to open up to more outside participation, not much can be done. However, the event can be promoted better, and this is where I see the community's role - I'd like to see if we can organize a separate group of volunteers to spearhead a real promotional campaign for WPPD 2023.
My idea is to do some guerilla marketing for it - mainly sending press releases both locally and regionally, as well as hitting up photo bloggers, vloggers, TikTokkers and whatnot. Ideally also from countries where pinholie photography hasn't taken off yet. I want to see if there are any others who'd be interested in pitching in. Any other ideas for promoting pinhole photography around the project? Let's start a conversation, maybe something will grow out of it. After all, that's how the whole thing got started in the first place.
 

You might try contacting Jonathon Fletcher at the Orange Coast College (ca) photo department.  He did his masters in pinhole photography where he designed rotary pinhole cameras making 360 degree photos that were quite interesting. He was one of my teachers and I really enjoyed his classes. Below is the professor bio page from OCC. He's been involved in some well known pinhole camera projects.

Website: https://orangecoastcollege.edu/academics/vpa/photography/contact-us.html

[Dustin McAmera]

I would make noise about this in one or more of the groups at Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/search/groups/?text=pinhole

 

I'm in the group 'Pinhole', which is pretty quiet. I have done WWPPD a few times but not for some years now. I first heard about WWPPD via Flickr, and most of my feedback from the Day came there too. You only get to upload one picture at the WWPPD site, whereas at Flickr the more the better, size is unrestricted, and you can comment.

 

 

[JDMvW]

DIY

[httpwww.photo.netbarry]

Didn't someone make a Leica body cap with a pinhole in so you could have a multi-thousand dollar Leica pinhole cam?

[dave_thomas8]

A similar post has gained a number of responses on another forum where it appeared. I know I've been participating every year since 2005 and plan to do so again this year. I'm not convinced things are down to a panic level. Certainly the Covid years reduced a lot of participation in many things. And I have received some promos from WPPD in my Facebook feed back as far as November for this year's event. I generally bring it to the attention of photographers I know personally.