On Monday, May 12th, 2014 at 7:15 pm, a group of avid photographers sat down in the home of Sandra Lucas in Dundas, Ontario to discuss the prospect of forming a new group or collective of very keen photographers. The facilitator of the group, Colin Williams, a past president of the Hamilton Camera Club, felt there had to be a different approach to managing a group of like-minded photographers. The idea of doing away with an executive approach of looking after a group and pursuing the idea of a self-managed group was discussed at length. The outcome of that discussion was that all would participate whenever possible but that personal lives should be considered first. The group took the approach that a more relaxed collective would be a congenial one and that changes to the group’s structure would require approval from the rest of the group. It was generally felt that an online website and gallery would be a way of promoting our photographers. The idea of presenting work in a public gallery or venue was well received. After some discussion, Paul Kiely proposed the name “30-1 Group” as a name for the group. That domain name was not available on the internet and was shelved. The next day Lorna Parcher suggested the name “Group ThirtyOne” which was generally supported and is now the official name of the group. It was also felt that the number of members admitted to the group would expand at a slow rate with a cap of thirty-one members moving foreward.

Principle Founder
Colin Williams

Founding Partners
Debora Twigg   Sandra Lucas
Karen Mitchell   Laura Twigg

Contact Information

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At the first meeting of the group, Colin Williams told the story of how an image of his had been scored at a judging of a Black and White assignment at the Hamilton Camera Club. The assignment produced a lot of good prints with a few images scoring in the high 20s. One particular image received a thirty (a perfect score) but 5 images later Colin’s image was presented and one of the judges asked “does this club give 31s ...” Thirty-one became a focal point of humorous discussion, playing an important part in establishing a name for the group. At the same time the idea of keeping the group to no more than thirty-one members was adopted with the consent of all.