TAKE AAIM:
what's it all about?

Can't keep up with acronyms that seem to flourish in today's society like breeding rabbits? And the photographic industry seems to have more than it's fair share of them. Well look out for just one more. AAIM sets out to unify and strengthen all of these different industry bodies and to prepare all image makers for the future. Peter Adams reports.

AN OVERVIEW:

It is perhaps an irony that much of the equipment we fitted into our black and white darkrooms twenty years ago is still in use today, while the electronic gadgetry we buy tomorrow will conceivably be out of date before we get it back to the studio.

As everyone is well aware, the photographic industry has evolved more in the past ten years than in the one hundred and eighty that came before it. However in many ways, our business thinking has not maintained the same pace - our minds may have taken off into the e-mail world but our feet are often still earth-bound in black and white developer.

Is it possible that technology is moving so fast that we are in danger of losing sight of where we are going - in danger of missing the beauty of the forest for the sight of one perfect tree? Out of the belief that we need to pause for a moment and perhaps take a small step backwards to find a better position for the tripod, the idea of The Australian Association of Image Makers, or AAIM, was born.

Or more accurately, re-born.

AN OBSERVATION:

I was talking to some students the other day and asked I them to visualise what a television set of the future might look like. To those of us with greying sideburns it may still be a 'veneered wooden box with splayed contemporary legs', to the students it was going to be an ultra-slim box hanging on the wall in place of a painting.

My point is that we are still thinking 'BOXES'. I believe our thinking needs to change.

Perhaps television images in the future won't be confined by a box. Perhaps they will be three dimensional - something that simply appears in a cloud in the middle of your coffee table, something we will be able to sit around, or walk around - seeing the image first from the front and then the back.

But of course, we'll never know until it happens. And it's happened before - five years ago who amongst us could honestly admit to having any concept of where computers and scanners and so forth were going?

Well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that the process of technology isn't going to slow down - if anything, it's going to accelerate.

If image makers are not prepared for the evolution that will occur in the industry over the next ten years; if we don't start combining forces with those involved with our images - from designers and politicians to cinematographers and educators - if we don't stop considering them to be the 'enemy' and learn instead to work together, we stand the risk of becoming pterodactyl's and passing unseen like ships into the night.

The purpose of The Australian Association of Image Makers, as I see it, is to provide an observation platform to better see where the industry is going.

SO, WHAT IS AAIM?

There are probably more, but I can name around twenty organisations involved directly or indirectly with the Image Making Industry in Australia and perhaps a further twenty areas of involvement from organisations that are closely aligned. The organisations representing these industries have many similar objectives to the ACMP or the AIPP - in that we all want protection for our images (through copyright) and a greater 'voice' in our future.

As individual societies we are a Little People - the ACMP has around 600 members, the AIPP around 1200 members and AGDA perhaps a further 2000 - however, if we combine forces with these and other organisations, our industry voice could grow twentyfold. Imagine the difference an organisation of 12,000 members would make when lobbying in Canberra for moral rights - or whatever the next stoush will be.

AN UMBRELLA.

Firstly, and this is very important, it is not intended that AAIM will replace any of the existing organisations. These are already working very hard on behalf of their members, dealing with immediate problems and strategies. Not only would it be impossible for AAIM to understand or replace them, it would also be undesirable.

Most of the societies representing the Image Making Industry in Australia are governed by voluntary boards whose directors unselfishly and freely give their time for the love of the industry.

It's damn hard work being on any board.

Most directors operate their own businesses and there is no doubt, in my mind, that they would operate these more efficiently if they didn't have to worry about giving up hours and days acting as directors on the Boards of the ACMP, et al.

And therein lies the main problem.

As individual societies we are just too busy putting out immediate forest fires, to spend enough time thinking about the bigger picture - of worrying about where the greater industry is headed, of where we want to be five, ten or fifteen years down the road. This is where AAIM comes in.

AAIM is an umbrella organisation answerable to the boards of the existing societies. It is comprised of two members from each - in the case of the ACMP, these two members are appointed by the Board.

HOW DO WE MAKE THIS WORK?

We have two options: AAIM can bog itself down in endless meetings and become yet another bureaucratic organisation preoccupied with taking minutes, wasting hours and creating mindless points of order or alternatively, if we handle the next couple of years carefully - AAIM can become a really important force within our industry.

I believe to make this happen, it is essential that AAIM has a goal - a destination - and we shouldn't start our journey without one.

WHAT DESTINATION?

If AAIM has four meetings a year, at which the only decision made is when to hold the next meeting, nothing will ever get done.

We need to agree on a long distance 'goal' - this may change as we progress, it may even turn into something completely different - perhaps even something better.

It doesn't really matter what the goal is, or (as strange as this sounds) even if it ever eventuates, because in the process of reaching for the destination we will learn something about one another and the industry in general both here and across the world.

WHERE DO WE START?

I believe an immediate goal is to establish Australia as a world leader in the area of Image Making - not just photographic images, but also graphically created images, cinematographic images, three dimensional images, and so forth. I have suggested a WORLD CONGRESS OF IMAGE MAKING to be held in Sydney at Darling Harbour in 2002.

Why? Because it will have the following domino effect:

• It will establish Australia as a LEADER in the eyes of the world, instead of a follower.
• Each of the member organisations of AAIM will be seen as a significant part of the international community and, by association, so will their members.
• At a time when more and more internationally created work is being modified for use in Australia, it will prove to our clients (and hopefully the rest of the world) that the best of the image-makers are right here in Australia.
• Photographers, Graphic Designers, Biomedical Image Makers, Marketing Authorities, Advertising Agencies, Web Site Designers, Industrial Designers, Publishing Industry, Educators, architects - even Window Dressers and Naval Architects - the whole ball of wax will be seen to be in harmony and working together. We have the opportunity to prove to the world that this is not only desirable but also POSSIBLE.
• It will demonstrate to our governments - both State and Federal- and those around the world governed by others, the ENORMOUS POWER created, once people are united in a single voice - with a single purpose.
• It will establish Australia's credentials with our sister organisations around the world - particularly the ASMP in the USA and the AOP in the UK - who perhaps will be encouraged to stop treating us as though we are poor relations and perhaps make us equals - after all, WE ALL HAVE A SIMILAR PURPOSE.
• At a time when more and more overseas entertainment programs and images are being adopted from overseas - to the detriment of suppliers and image makers alike - it will demonstrate to the world Australia's extraordinary ability, not only in a craft sense but also in an organisational one, and illustrate that while the Seppos and Poms may have their own unique way of looking at things, we also have ours - an Australian culture WORTH PRESERVING.
• It will prove that Australians can also reach for the stars. It will prove we can stretch out and think globally. It will encourage us to start working with our neighbours - particularly those to the north of this continent - rather than just for them and it will counteract the perceived bigotry and racism that emerged last year.
• Because our clients would also be involved in the World Congress of Image Making - by contributing with marketing expertise and lectures - they also would become more aware of our industry and perhaps more sympathetic to our needs and abilities. If photographers and film makers go out of business because of modification to overseas material, the whole of Australia suffers.
• An probably most important of all, at a time when the size of our pond is staying the same, but the number of ducks wanting to occupy it is getting larger, it would provide all image makers with a resource that will encourage them to expand and develop a net work facility to international markets - we just need to invite the right people. Simply training more and more image makers is not enough - we must also expand the pond.
• It's time. Australia needs to do this for Australia. We need to do this for us. We need to stop focussing on who is being unethical on which wedding shoot. We need to stop worrying about what Joe Bloggs is charging to photograph a beer bottle. Or whether we have receive one Presidents Award or three. We need to start concentrating on important things. It's time to slice off at the knees all those who continue to support the Tall Poppy Syndrome - whatever that means - and start being proud of who we are.
  It's OK to wave the Aussie flag!

THE NEXT STEP?

I believe we need a consensus from all the Image Making societies around Australia, that it is desirable, at least in principle, that something like the WORLD CONGRESS OF IMAGE MAKING should be held within the next two years.

I would like all of you to consider this and how it might be made to work.

I hope you'll think bigger than our immediate needs as photographers or graphic artists or film makers and contemplate where image making is going in a global sense. I'd like you to consider what form your industry might take ten years from now. I hope you'll contemplate how long a World Congress of Image Making should run. What you would like to see included. Who you would like to see included. Where it should be held. And so forth.

At this stage the WORLD CONGRESS OF IMAGE MAKING is a fragile and embryonic idea. In order for it to grow it needs sustenance and nurturing. I'd like you to contribute.

Peter Adams
Federal President, ACMP

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