Diversity and its relevance to The RPS is a theme I plan to revisit in a future blog.
Creating new role models is important for us if we are to encourage more entrants to photography as a profession or an interest. And that is not exclusive to photography as an art form. It also encompasses the whole spectrum; photojournalism, documentary and technical specialism such as medical.
Getting real role models as attainable goals is important. I was particularly taken by a group I once met in Manchester "Women of Science" who use photographs of real people to tell their stories.
We should also address what has become known as the "leaky pipeline" problem; the numbers of people leaving this interest or profession through their lifetimes without attaining their full potential. We should maybe consider some of the multiple possible paths into and through photography that can lead to professional or personal progress.
But right at the start of this pipeline are people just starting out in photography. On a recent visit to RPS House I was privileged to attend a presentation session by a group of local students from the Boomsatsuma digital media course. There were a number of fabulous creative ideas presented and here is one. Lin Jermakova illustrated the concept of Заяц (zayats), which in Russian, means rabbit - a name of comfort and familiarity for children by parents. Here it was a character imagined to symbolically represent her father integrated into her childhood.
We should be nurturing emerging talent such as this. Now that would sit well with our mission in education.