in ref to: have your read this lately?
Well, PhotoForum almost died in 2006 and then again in 2012 - first time due to medical developments and the next time due to political meddling. It still has a membership list of about 500 but not sure how many are "live" connections (meaning not "postponed") and how many are "digests".
The list was established in late 1993 ("founded" by Rus Kraus and Howard LeVant and me - my co-founders did not last long in their association with the list!) and was hand redistributed for a couple of months until the institution installed a listserver. The first quite popular photo list was Photo-L, founded at Boston U by a student there (I think this is so but not 100%). When he graduated Photo-L was briefly transferred to Cleveland where a person much into nature photography took it over and ran it briefly.
As that was happening PhotoForum was established (as I said run by hand) to get RIT in the "frey" so to speak. It was going to be called Photo-Net but there was an activity by that name in the UK and so that was nixed. You can see how Photo-Net became a success. ;) The gallery was started in 1996 and contributions were sufficient to have a changing set of 12 images per week for quite some time.
A couple of old timers on the list are Marilyn Dalrymple and Chris Strevens I think. Bob Rosen was also a spark plug for many years. Activity in the late 90's was about 100+ messages a day. Many thought that was overwhelming. Also it was a time of significant turmoil that caused many members to drop out.
PhotoForum had a few significant activities that members participated in. Pass-the-camera project I and II was one of them. The publication of a couple of catalogs of members work was another. There were themed exhibitions and some are still available online. Like there was a self-portrait one. There is an extensive FAQ file (mostly film related), listing of schools that teach photography, articles or various kinds, etc. all reachable from the front page. This has admittedly not been changed for quite some time. This list and gallery are looked after by one person since its inception. That would be me. In spite of the bevy of assistant names that you might see referenced. That is a personal "quirk" and nothing more. It helps to delude one's self that there is a bevy of smiling assistant to help with things!
The list is what its members make it. That was the point and continues to be so. I hope it serves a useful purpose. Or maybe its purpose was served years ago and it is just hard to let it go. This December will be its 20th year online.
Andy Davidhazy
PhotoForum coordinator
and sometimes lustmaster
1994-2012 (list died in 2012 and
I didn't know it)
In a message dated 6/11/2013 6:20:56 P.M. Eastern
Daylight Time,
randyslittle@xxxxxxxxx writes:
