The Emerging Photographers Network
You finished the course. Or you never went. Either way, you’re still shooting, still thinking about photography, and still looking for the people who take it as seriously as you do.
That’s what the EPN is.
What this is
The EPN is a mobile-first community for photographers who are building their practice and want the structure, the feedback, and the community to do it properly. It’s backed by the Royal Photographic Society, which means access to real mentors, real credentials, and a network with 175 years of photographic credibility behind it.
It doesn’t feel like 175 years. It feels like a group chat with people who actually know what they’re talking about.
Who it’s for
Photography students who want a professional community before they need one. Recent graduates who lost the crits, the studio, and the corridor when they left college. Self-taught photographers who are serious about the work but never had access to the infrastructure that art school provides.
If any of that sounds like you, you’re in the right place.
What you get
Weekly briefs to keep your practice moving. Rapid peer feedback when you need a second opinion fast. Foundational courses on everything college assumed you already knew. Short intensives on the practical stuff nobody teaches: pricing your work, writing grant applications, getting your first exhibition on a wall.
A mentor matched to your practice. Real conversations about your work, via direct message, from someone who has navigated the territory you’re navigating.
Genre communities for every kind of photographic practice. A collective photobook published every year. A zine exchange twice a year. An annual showcase open to the public.
And Circles: small, private, time-bounded groups of 5 to 8 photographers who commit to working together seriously over a 12-week cycle. The closest thing to a studio that a remote community can offer.
What it costs
From £25 a year. Less than a roll of film a month. Includes full RPS membership and the LRPS distinctions pathway.
What it isn’t
It isn’t Instagram. Nobody here is performing. It isn’t a course platform where you watch videos and forget about it. It isn’t a Discord server full of gear chat.
It’s a community of photographers who are serious about what they make and who they’re becoming.
Join
You don’t need a degree. You don’t need expensive equipment. You need a practice, the will to develop it, and the honesty to show your work before it’s finished.
Everything else follows from there.