Happy lessons from GR Meet Zürich
Like a lot of people, I want to live more of my life offline and in real human spaces.
Introvert? Extrovert? Photography is for everyone, and it can be solitary or social. For me, solo street photography is a meditation, a state of presence — flowing through cities and following instincts. But it can also be a party and great way to meet people or spend a social Saturday. There’s something amazing and deeply communal about walking through towns with a loosely-knit cast of curious, focused, and playful folks.
I recently organized a “camera club”-style meet-up and photowalk in my new home of Zürich for Ricoh GR camera photographers and fans. Why? I’d been to a few in Japan last year, both informal and official events, and they were some of the best memories of my extended travel there. I loved the kind of people they attracted — photogs who enjoyed the freedom and fun of compact cameras and capturing the beauty of everyday life.
So, I decided to do one.
I’ve run a lot of creative workshops in my professional career as a designer, so I took some of that and stirred it together with elements I liked about other photowalks I’ve been on. The event turned out great and we had a lot of fun, so I thought I’d share some inspiration and pro tips for you to plan your own. : )
How to organize your own photowalk:
1. Identify the basics.
What is the focus? Where will you be? When to do it? Who would be interested? e.g. Nature walk, urban walk, wildlife, film camera users, GR or Leica camera fans. What are people in your community into? What is your photography passion that you’d like to connect with new like-minded people about? Think about what you would enjoy, know about, and be excited to lead.
2. Plan the activity and route.
Where do you want to walk and how will you meet up? Do you want to get coffee first? What is a visually interesting path through a city or nature area?
For smaller groups (<10), I recommend meeting up at a coffee shop or similar. For larger groups, a local landmark is a good idea, e.g. train station, park fountain, etc. For a typical event, about 2 hours is good for the total event, with the route being ~1000m (~1/2 mile) maximum in length.
How are people getting to your event? Make sure the route ends either back at the starting point, or a central transit area.
For my meet-up of 10-20 people, I reserved a section of a centrally-located casual local pub as a meeting point, and planned a route from there that included a bridge, Zürich main train station, cool architecture, and a green area near water. It started at 2pm, and I’d planned the walk for ~3pm, but it started to pour rain so we happily stayed inside a bit longer, sharing camera toys and conversation until the rain stopped.
4. Promote your photowalk.
Do you have your event date and focus? Great!
Who do you want to come? Friends? Photo club? Social media friends? New people who share your interest? Photowalks are local, so think creatively how to reach people in your area.
For my event, I promoted primarily via social media but also at real-world photo events, e.g. local photography events and clubs that I’m in as well as others via their media channels (e.g. WhatsApp). I made an online “ad” as well as small paper flyers I carried with me, and started promoting it 1.5 months beforehand. I was also lucky enough to have my Instagram promo reposted by the GR Europe account when I tagged them. I also did some small paid ads, but it’s not necessary. You can also post on community bulletin boards in cafés, camera stores, art supply stores and the like. Online, sites like Craigslist and Eventbrite can be good for free local event announcements.
If you want to keep things super public and open-ended, include all the specifics in your promotion: Date, time, exact location. Then don’t change it and just show up.
If you want a more private event or to be able to send updates, then include a “call to action” in your promotion, e.g. QR code or easy URL where people can view or sign-up for updates. For my event, I used a QR code + short URL where people could add themselves to my announcements-only WhatsApp group. This worked out well both before the event and after, where people could then easily connect with the others they’d met and share photos.
Start promoting about a month before the event — enough time for people to plan, but also close enough to build excitement around. Then dial up the promotion in the week and days immediately before.
5. Prepare for your event.
Go on a test walk of your route. Is it interesting for your group’s focus? Is it fun, safe, pedestrian-friendly, accessible for your expected guests?
Make sure your meet-up location will work for your size of group and time of day. Will it be open? Do you need to reserve anything? Is it easy to find for people who haven’t been there before? Is it listed correctly in Google Maps?
6. Show up, take care of your people, and have fun. : )
When you organize a photowalk, you are a host. People are trusting you with their time and energy. Be open and friendly, talk to everyone individually, and introduce them to each other. Know where you’re going and actively communicate to people what’s interesting along the way. Learn what individuals are interested in and point out cool things to them. Take fun group shots. Encourage people to teach you and others what they know. Play, experiment, and have a great adventure together.
(Optional.) Plan bonus stuff to make it more fun.
How can you make your event more delightful? What can you give your guests that keeps on giving after the event — a new skill, a new inspiration, a small gift, a new friend?
It only occurred to me after announcing my event, that it was effectively a creative workshop. I got excited went a little wild here… :). I made stickers, name tags, printed out one of my “Ricoh recipes” (camera settings), showed how to make A4 photo zines, brought some of my own camera toys for people to play with, etc.
Here’s something easy I’d recommend for most photowalks:
Creative prompts or “assignments” — small slips of paper with curious bits of inspiration on them. I did this and people loved them. I was inspired by the spirit of Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies and went a bit surreal with mine, e.g. “take a photo that a cat would take.” Just come up with 10-20 different prompts, print them all on a sheet of paper, and then cut them into little strips — they become almost like fortunes.
Get out there and have some fun. :)
Have you been on a photowalk or organized one?
Let me know if you have any tips or want some ideas for planning one of your own!
JILL.DESIGN 
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