Lockdown spirit
The SheClicks group has been inspiring its members during lockdown with webinars, virtual meet ups and friendly challenges
Angela Nicholson founded the SheClicks Facebook group in 2018. She describes it as a community for female photographers that’s designed to support, educate and encourage women who enjoy photography as a hobby or as a profession. It’s open to women with any level of experience, from novices using a phone to experienced professionals using highend kit. Since launching, it has attracted almost 7,000 members and enjoys a very high engagement rate.
‘I started the group for a variety of reasons,’ she explains, ‘ but primarily because there’s a gender imbalance in photography and it’s a very important medium for communication.
‘It’s a complex issue but a lack of opportunity, confidence and support are often cited as reasons for women not pursuing photographic careers.’
Although of course nobody could have anticipated the impact that Covid-19 would have upon the world, it’s safe to say that having already built up a strong community, SheClicks was well-prepared to support its members.
‘When the effects of Covid-19 started to become apparent, it became clear that we are a community of friends first,’ says Angela. ‘I posted a video inviting any members who were feeling frightened, stressed or lonely to reach out to the community for help and support, and the response was lovely with members sending best wishes, words of support and practical solutions to practical problems as everyone tried to make sense of the developing situation.
‘Many members also embraced the comfort that photography can bring, while recognising that others may not have the time, opportunity or mojo to take photographs themselves. SheClicks has always been a friendly community but I think we have become closer-knit and more appreciative of each other. And there’s always a warm welcome to new members!’
Prior to the lockdown, monthly ‘webinars’ (online presentations) were organised by Angela. Streamed live to the Facebook group, they’re run by leading photographers and are free for members to watch, either live or after the event. Since lockdown, she’s boosted that offering to weekly. ‘Upping the frequency to weekly has been challenging and I’m always looking for more presenters. I try to organise two weeks in advance – I would like to plan a bit further ahead, but life gets in the way. I have a Zoom licence for 100 participants and every
webinar has been fully subscribed. It would be nice to find a sponsor to enable more people to attend.’
Angela firmly believes that the best way through any crisis is through collaboration. ‘We can support each other and make sure everyone comes through it OK. That’s an attitude I see throughout the photographic community.’
As well as the webinars, an informal ‘virtual co ee morning’ has been taking place every Thursday morning. ‘A lot of people have experienced a sense of isolation or loneliness during the lockdown and I thought one way to combat it would be to run virtual get-togethers. There’s no theme – just a chat with no agenda.
The conversation tends to focus around photography, but not exclusively and there’s always lots of laughter.’
Finally, another lockdownfriendly tactic has been to engage the community with photographic challenges. Again, this was something that the group had always done, with e orts ramped up recently. ‘We run a monthly photo challenge via Photocrowd, but the themes for April and May were “Kitchen Close Up” and “Social Distancing”. In addition, on 17 March, Sally HedgesGreenwood – the author of the “With Photography” series of books began posting regular conversation-starter images every day on the Facebook group. I invited her to do it on a more o cial basis for the group and she’s been posting every day since. Our aim was to give everyone something else to think about and give extra focus for our photography.’
The latter challenge will be coming to an end this month. Sally explains, ‘Several SheClickers have written to thank me, saying they will miss the daily posts. Approaching the lifting of lockdown is a natural finishing point and I can leave them now knowing that part of the photographer’s experience of lockdown will include the positivity of the daily posts.’