Notes on membership

TERMS OF MEMBERSHIP

Membership of The Circle is strictly by invitation, to published or established photographers working in the areas of travel, documentary, reportage and fine art photography. No qualifications or organization memberships are necessary for, or guarantee entrance to, The Circle. We’re keen to have photographers join our society who have established themselves as skilled, talented photographers who are passionate about the work (in terms of both technique and subject) that they produce - in the absence of any published work, photographers seeking member ship of The Circle should be able to demonstrate an extensive portfolio of the highest quality work, and a strong commitment to, and knowledge of, photography. Membership is for life, or until the member expresses a desire to leave the society.

STRUCTURE OF THE SOCIETY

As member numbers grow, a structure of the society should be decided and voted upon. Whilst member numbers remain manageable, I’d propose that the society remain as self-policing as possible, and that we follow the process regarding new members, as set out below.

NEW MEMBERS

Any member can propose a photographer for membership of the society, but the proposed member must receive a positive vote of approval from the members currently on the membership panel; a judgement based on the quality and content of his portfolio, in order to receive a formal invitation to join the society. If the proposed member fails to achieve a unanimous vote of acceptance, the Editors’ decision to accept or decline membership to the proposed candidate will be final. The Editor retains the right to a casting vote, in the event of a tied result, and his decision will be final in all matters or disputes relating to membership poles. To read details of how new members may be admitted to the society, click here.

SUBMISSION OF SAMPLES

Please read the ‘Submission of Work’ page for further details of how to submit work to The Circle.

THE SITE

The main purpose of the site is to showcase the work of our members and link to their sites. It’s meant to also serve the purpose of enabling photographers to publish printed works together with other members. I’m not interested in adding the kind of site gimmicks, (member rankings, live chat forums, competitions, and the like) that you’ll see elsewhere on the Net - we’re a professional-level group of busy,working photographers - I certainly don’t have the time or inclination to spend time arranging or organizing such features!

MEMBERSHIP FEES

There is currently no annual membership fee. This situation may need to be reviewed if member numbers increase dramatically, or if extra hosting or server resources are required.

COMPILATION BOOKS

It is intended that the society produce regular printed books for sale through the site, and through other online channels. However, it is not obligatory for members to contribute material to book projects. There have been no decisions taken about the form of this publishing or sales mechanism, but there are a number of print-on-demand services in existence which offer a full printing, marketing and distribution service. If the society votes to use one of these services, any contributing members in a book project will be expected to share the set-up costs (which can be extremely low for print-on-demand) equally between them. A written contract will be circulated to all contributing members to a book project, detailing all aspects of their involvement in the project and, in particular, how any eventual profits will be distributed. Members will be asked to vote on the options open relating to this, before any firm decisions are taken.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright of all works displayed on the site or published in compilations of members’ work remains with the creator of the image. I will draft an agreement shortly, which will be circulated to members, covering the use of their images on this site.

In the case of published compilations of members’ work, written contracts will be circulated to all contributing members, stipulating the terms of their involvement in the project and detailing the image licensing terms of the project.