Calling all photographers

Published 10:49 pm Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Think you’re the next Ansel Adams or Annie Leibovitz?

Grab a camera, a pair of walking shoes and head down to the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts on Saturday, Oct. 24.

The first-ever Suffolk Photo Walk will be held from 9 to 11 a.m., and will start at the SCCA’s doors.

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The premise is simple: a group of people will meet and walk together along a chosen route, taking pictures along the way. Then, everyone participating in the walk will share their photos to show all of the different perspectives found in one morning walk.

“We’re excited about it,” said Mark Chambers, one of the event’s organizers. “It is a great way of bringing art into the community.”

Chambers serves as the director of worship and arts for Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church, and said there is a constant discussion of how to bring artistry from within the church to the outside community.

“How do we as artists engage the community around us?” Chambers said. “How do we get outside the walls of this church? This is a great way to interface with members of our community, and be able to share and discuss art.”

Having gotten the idea from a friend who had participated in a worldwide photo walk earlier, Chambers and volunteers from the church began creating a photo walk here in Suffolk.

No photography experience is necessary to participate. In fact, Chambers said, diverse styles and backgrounds are preferred.

“We purposefully left it open-ended,” he said. “Anyone who wants to come out and take pictures, we want them out there.”

At the end of the walk, participants will be encouraged to upload their photos to the photo walk’s Web page, www.suffolkphotowalk.com. For three months, the photographs will remain online to be voted on by the site’s visitors. The top pictures will then be featured in a gallery showing at the SCCA in January. Additionally, the top photos will be featured in an upcoming Suffolk News-Herald publication.

On top of connecting artists in the community, Chambers said the photo walk also can help jumpstart young photographers’ ambitions by giving them an outlet to work in.

For more information, people can visit the Web page at www.suffolkphotowalk.com, where they will find a contact sheet to submit with any questions.

“It would be great if we have 25 people show up and it will great if we have 100 people show up,” Chambers said. “It should be a lot of fun.”