Spotlight: Barry Kirsch and the Sanford Camera Club

By Jessica Pirani
Herald Arts Columnist

Recent transplant to Sanford, Barry Kirsch and his wife moved here from Winter Park last year and have grafted on beautifully. After retiring from a 40-year career in photojournalism, Barry has been branching out as this year's president of the Orlando Camera Club, but is already looking ahead to the end of his term at such time as he plans to start up a Sanford Camera Club.

Not long ago, he'd been asked to give a few pointers for the Sanford Historic Trust. Their calendar this year will have a theme of “This is Sanford,” and crowd-sourced photo content will feature local faces and places, but with an emphasis on people.
“So I was asked to come teach people some basic techniques and legals and privacy.” He began during an interview late last week. In passing, he'd mentioned to the assembled masses that it would be cool to start a camera club here.
“And when the presentation was over, I could see that people wanted and needed more, so I said, 'We'll do a photowalk.'” Kirsch obliged. And then the peanut gallery cried for a local camera club. Again Kirsch was inclined to accommodate.     
The Photowalk kicked off this Saturday morning with a stroll around our downtown area and Barry offering guidance all along the way. As the sun began to rise higher and hotter, the angles became less favorable, and the shooters more irritable, so the thirty-odd photography flock descended upon the Colonial Room where they enjoyed a big breakfast and reviewed each other's work.

“It was a wide variety of people from the Trust and the OCC. People were using everything from camera phones to DSLRs. It was a lot of fun!”

Kirsch is thinking that he'll be able to get the Sanford Camera Club up and running this summer after he wraps up a few projects and figures out the to-be charter's by-laws and articles. He's already anticipating groovy speakers and presentations that he'll organize to edify our photographic community. For example, he explained: “To be a bird photographer, you need about $40,000 in camera gear to do it well. I don’t have that kind of money, but still wanted to shoot birds, so I went to the Birds of Pray Center, and had them bring the birds to our meeting.”

Through this type of event, local artists can hone in on experientially informed skill-sets that may have previously been unattainable. To that end, he's also brought in actors, speakers and presenters during his tenure as the OCC's president and is eager to incite the same sort of riot in Sanford.

Another event that Barry is excited to bring local is the annual Holiday in Winter Park a photo walk and contest kicked off by the Orlando Camera Club. In partnership with the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce, the group perambulates Park Avenue on the first weekend of December, snapping photos to the little hearts' content, and then publishes them on their Facebook page. A contest of supremacy and popularity ensues to rev up vigor and holiday mirth. Kirsch is already thinking about how he can move this event to Sanford with our own local camera club.

“I want to be a contributing part of my new community,” said Barry candidly when queried about why he wants to spend his time and energy organizing these events. “[At the Photowalk,] people were excited and had a good time. We all met new people, made new friends, learned who our neighbors are. It was a great time and the weather was perfect. Some people hadn't ever been here before.”
Hold your breath, Sanfordites, a new camera club is coming!

Jessica Pirani can be reached at JessieBerger@yahoo.com.