Over the past couple of weeks I have come across two relatively new "collectives" that young photographers have established to promote their work. Here I am less interested in the individual work - which seems to me to be uniformly very very good - than in the organizational strategy of collaboration. The first of the collectives is
Razón whose five members describe their common undertaking as follows:
Razón is an international collective of visual storytellers pursuing stories independently, but sharing, inspiring, and motivating each other to seek and convey truths and reasons behind every story to be told.
Razón was founded by 5 members scattered throughout the globe, each offering a unique perspective on the events unfolding in their respective regions.
The nucleus of Razón lies in the collective’s collaborative spirit and desire to assist one another, while exploring social issues in a new age of visual storytelling.
The second of the collectives is called
Luceo Images and its six members offer this self-description:
Luceo Images is a photographer owned and operated cooperative established with the goal of supporting the significant work of its members. Luceo produces the highest quality commercial and editorial photography and works to provide creative nourishment to our member photographers.
Luceo’s six founding members came together during a time of industry transition that has impacted the way that imagery is created, distributed and consumed. We are meeting these challenges with creative ideas that offer solutions to our clients and allow us opportunities to work on projects with purpose.
Luceo believes that photography is about dialogue, discussion and shared ideas. It is with this belief that Luceo reaches out beyond its group to build relationships with other individuals and collectives. Our hope is to build a network of partnerships that allow us opportunities to fulfill our goals and to offer unique products and services to our clients.
FEATURES:
Luceo is united in a common belief that, through these times of change, the still image continues to be relevant. We believe that history extends beyond the news-cycle, and that ordinary people and personal struggle are avenues through which we can explore the bigger issues facing our world. It is with this purpose that we created the Luceo Project Fund and the Luceo Student Project Award.
Project Fund: We believe in actively encouraging the completion of significant personal bodies of work, which lack funding through mainstream outlets. In pursuit of this goal, Luceo contributes a percentage of all editorial and commercial commissions toward the Luceo Project Fund. This fund exists solely to support the long-term projects of Luceo’s member photographers. Every commission allows our clients to support significant photographic work.
Student Project Award: We also believe that developing photographers need support. To advance this cause, Luceo pledges a portion of this fund towards the Luceo Student Project Award. This award is disbursed annually to a talented student photographer in support of a significant and developing body of work.
I am sure these collectives cannot be unique - there must be other such undertakings.They nevertheless seem to me exemplary of the sort of mutual aid and support that is called for in the face of daunting economic pressures.
