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.
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.
