Sarah Wilkerson is CEO of Clickin Moms, the photography industry’s largest female-photographer social network. Sarah, a graduate of Duke University and the University of Texas School of Law, lives with her husband and four children in Charlottesville, Virginia and teaches advanced courses on photography composition and creativity.
“…It’s been amazing to see women realise how much we all gain when we work together… at the end of the day, we have three choices: to be disconnected, to be connected negatively, or to be connected positively. And when you look at it like that, it’s a no-brainer; collaboration drives innovation, yields growth, and raises the bar for everyone…”
Transitioning from a career in the law to military wife to photographer
I certainly couldn’t have anticipated this transition, but the military lifestyle just isn’t conducive to a traditional career path, and when I became an Army wife, I knew things would develop a bit differently than I might have planned.
I had my first baby just days after I was sworn in as an attorney, and ten days after that, my husband deployed to Iraq. I purchased a camera in order to capture for my husband the memories he was missing as our son grew, but I found quickly that photography also challenged me intellectually and nourished me creatively.
Before I knew it, I was shooting every day; I couldn’t get enough. I’ve been surprised to see my own story echoed with stunning similarity by others; over the years, I have come to know countless women from incredibly diverse and fascinating backgrounds – fellow lawyers, moms and military wives, along with doctors, teachers, and travellers – for whom photography has become an unexpected and important part of life.
How I got involved with Clickin Moms
I actually joined Clickin Moms as a regular member. I was fairly new to photography, and a friend recommended Clickin Moms as a place to share and connect with other photographers. I was drawn to the idea of collaborative learning and the social facets of the online community.
My heightened involvement came about very organically; I fell in love with the community and became invested in helping it to deliver the education, experience, and environment that I myself wanted to enjoy as a photographer.
Our private forum has about 16,000 photographer members, but our larger network of students, subscribers, and followers amounts to approximately 250,000.
Why positively connected women drive innovation, yield growth and raise the bar for everyone
It’s been amazing to see women realise how much we all gain when we work together. There’s a certain amount of natural competition in the business world, of course, and with the rise of social media, we also see competition for recognition, validation, and presence. However, at the end of the day, we have three choices: to be disconnected, to be connected negatively, or to be connected positively. And when you look at it like that, it’s a no-brainer; collaboration drives innovation, yields growth, and raises the bar for everyone.
It’s exactly what we’ve seen in the photography industry in recent years: the incredible level of sharing, collaboration, and encouragement that women have shown to one another have dramatically elevated the character and quality of photographs being produced.
Background to our new book, Capture the Moment, out on 7th April
We’ve seen a wonderful evolution in the photography industry in recent years, with more women picking up cameras, more readily accessible technology and education, and growing enthusiasm for photography as a means of personal expression. That shift has yielded a fantastic diversification of voices and an elevation of artistry across the board.
Capture the Moment is both acelebration of these extraordinary new voices and, we hope, a means to inspire and educate even more people to become the photographers they want to be. It was important to us that the book offer something to photographers (and even non-photographers!) of all levels, and it presents a carefully balanced blend of inspirational imagery, practical advice, and stimulating creativity exercises.
Our contributors
Clickin Moms has an advanced subset – CMpro – which is comprised of several hundred photographers whose work demonstrates a heightened level of technique, style, and voice. We invited these talented artists to submit their favorite work as a part of the project, and from amongst those submissions, we chose a selection for inclusion in the book.
100% of our royalties going to Ronald McDonald House Charities
The book represents the talent and personal expressions of more than 100 wonderful photographers, and we asked those photographers to vote on a charity that was meaningful to them. As a result of that vote, we selected Ronald McDonald House Charities as the beneficiary of 100% of our royalties, and as mothers / daughters / sisters ourselves, it’s incredibly rewarding to us to be able to provide all of our proceeds from this project to an organisation that is doing so much work to support families.
How Womanthology readers can get involved
Our underlying mission has always been to bring people together and to support and inspire them to incorporate photography into their lives. A camera is a wonderful tool of empowerment and enrichment, but everyone’s journey is a little bit different, and we recognise that. With that in mind, we welcome anyone who has an interest in making a photography a part of her life — whether it’s a more casual interest in more beautifully capturing memories for herself or her family, as a therapeutic means of creative expression, or as part of a professional pursuit.
Clickin Moms will always be a place where anyone can come to share images, connect with others, and learn; we’d love to have your readers join us so we’re offering Womanthology readers 25% off a standard Clickin Moms membership; the code is WOMANTHOLOGY. The direct signup link is http://www.clickinmoms.com/signup
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Images are reprinted with permission from Capture the Moment by Sarah Wilkerson, copyright (c)2014. Published by Amphoto Books, a division of Penguin Random House, Inc.
