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Hello Alameda!
You'll hear interesting, insightful interviews on a variety of topics from folks on our island & beyond right here ..
We aim to educate & illuminate while bringing Alamedans together around the question: How can we all contribute to making our city work better? .. Come & join in on the conversation.
Hello, Alameda! Welcome to the Island City Beat Podcast. I'm your host, Angie Watson Hajim. If you like photography and enjoy taking photos for others to enjoy, you might be inspired to participate in a wonderful local tradition called Alameda on Camera. For the past twenty years, organizers of Alameda on Camera have invited local photographers to take out their cameras and over the course of forty eight hours two days to capture images of people, places, neighborhoods, things that catch their eye for all of us to enjoy.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Joining me to talk about this annual artistic event is Tag Gorman, who is the committee chair of Alameda on Camera, And also joining me is his son, Kyle, who has participated in Alameda on Camera as a youth photographer. And with that, I want to say hello to Tag and Kyle. Welcome to the Island City Beat Podcast. Thank you so much for both being here.
Taggart Gorman:Hi, Angie. Thanks for having us.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Yeah.
Kyle Gorman:And thank you for having us.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Absolutely. So, Tad, let's start with you. Give us some background about Alameda on camera, how it began and what does participation look like?
Taggart Gorman:Sure. So I haven't been with Alameda on camera since the beginning, but from talking with some of the other organizers, it was founded by one of the shoot, one of the older participants in the Frank Bette's Center for the Arts. Her name was Deborah Owen, and she was aware of a competition of sorts in Seattle where photographers were not exactly like how we have an Alameda on camera, but we're given a kind of competition where they were given certain areas in Seattle and that they had to go and work in an assigned space. And then similarly here in Alameda, are a couple of photography clubs and one of them called the Alameda Photo Club. They were doing kind of what they called field trips where they would go out with like a specific goal.
Taggart Gorman:So not so much area based, but goal, maybe it was take pictures of cars or take pictures of trees, but they, all of them would go out and take some photographs and then at a later date get together and compare and vote amongst themselves for a winner. So at the Frank Bette's Center, it was decided that winter time is kind of a more quiet time at the center and they wanted to have something to bring people in to generate new interest. And so it was decided that they were going to come up with this competition called Alameda on camera and to take place at the end of February. It kind of bookends with at the August, we have our very big event, the plein air paint out, which is nationally known we get people from all over the country that come to participate in the paint out. So this is kind of like the bookend.
Taggart Gorman:We've got six months apart.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Cool. So you pick up 48 photographers. And so if people want to participate, they have to show, I guess, their stuff. Mean, they have to give you some of their work and the judges decide which 48 people are going to be able to participate in this event. So what are the judges looking for?
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Can you give us some tips on what they want?
Taggart Gorman:Yes. So when you apply to Alameda on camera as an adult, we ask that you submit three photographs, three images. Now it doesn't have to be photographs. I hate to use the word jurors because we actually have a juror, a later juror of, the competition who is the one that actually hands out the awards. This is kind of like, you could maybe say pre jurors, but, we do have a group of people that look at the photographs in a blind manner.
Taggart Gorman:So there's no way of them knowing because Alameda is a small town and quite often, you know, you might know the photographer or you might recognize their work. So we try to do things in a blind fashion, but really what we're looking for is just, you know, and it's one of those things that can't really be, you know, written down, but we're looking for people that have an eye for art. And that can be anything I've seen. You know, since I've been involved with this, I've seen a lot of the, you know, three pieces of art that come in and we'll get wide ranges of stuff. It might just be, you know, somebody was out with their iPhone, saw something interesting, a cat in a window or, you know, a shadow on the ground.
Taggart Gorman:Other times the images that are submitted are, you know, we definitely have professional photographers who compete. And so, you're gonna see something that maybe they took at a photo session they did, or maybe they were traveling in Europe. And so that brings me to the point of the three images that you submit. They don't have to be just within Alameda. They're more just to show us that, you know, you have an eye for art.
Taggart Gorman:Now, you know, like I said, that's very subjective. That's unfortunately, it's up to the judges to determine. And sometimes we've had, we try to rotate these judges through so that every year isn't the exact same people picking the exact same kind of art. But it also means that sometimes, we've had people that have competed before haven't got in because just, if there's too many applicants, there's definitely more than 48 people who have applied, then unfortunately someone or some people are going to get cut. And it just can be up to, I hate to use the word whims, but it's definitely up to what the judges see.
Taggart Gorman:So really, and before I was a member of the committee, I also participated. And so I kind of have also the concept of, you know, what is it they're looking for? Well, you can't really say that. But other than just, put your best foot forward. And it doesn't necessarily have to be pictures that you took last week or last month.
Taggart Gorman:It's just send us three pieces of your work that you're proud of, that you feel like show your eye, your manner, your vision.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Yeah. You don't have to be a photographer, but you could be an amateur. Yeah. Mean, yeah, anyone.
Taggart Gorman:Oh, absolutely. Huge amount of the people that participate are amateurs. In fact, we want everyone to apply. Like I said, unfortunately, we can only take 48 people, but please by all means, do not think of yourself as, oh, if I'm not a professional photographer, I cannot compete. In fact, oftentimes the professional photographers don't get in or sometimes they don't win prizes either.
Taggart Gorman:It's, it's, you know, it's out there now, as an aside for the youth competition, we, we accept every youth that wants to apply. They actually don't have to submit any art. We want as many of them to join as possible. There's no requirements. All you have to do is fill out the form as a youth and you can compete.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:And what's the age range for the youth?
Taggart Gorman:So we say up to 18. Now, obviously, you know, there's going to be, you know, it's really more like we want high school students and below. So if somebody already turned 18, but they're still in high school, we'll let them in. But generally thinking is that we're looking for kids still in school, elementary through high school.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:It's good, yeah. I remember we were talking, Tag, he was saying how you guys have had kind of a challenging time in getting young people to participate, and your son is here, Kyle, who actually did participate. So Kyle, I'd love to hear what inspired you to pick up your camera and be part of Alameda on camera.
Kyle Gorman:I don't exactly remember the whole story. I was kind of just given a camera at some point and I kind of just started taking pictures from then. I heard about Alameda of camera, Alameda on camera because of course my dad was participating and also part of the staff a little bit here and there. But, yeah, I kinda I I basically started as an amateur. I really didn't know what I was doing, but then throughout history and throughout time, I got a little better, started expressing myself a little more and, know, just going somewhere, just experimenting every year.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:That's wonderful. Are there some favorite images that you capture that you wanna share?
Kyle Gorman:I mean, probably from, like, past two years, I guess. I really, let's see here. There is this one photo that I digged up from last year's competition.
Kyle Gorman:It is of a heavily kind of, edited photo that I took. It is from, I believe, like a sand area. Like, it's by the ocean, and the sand is, like, pure black. And then the ocean is just, like, pure blue with, like, white highlights or, like, little speckles in the water.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Wow i wish, I wish I could see it. it sounds beautiful, the image.
Kyle Gorman:I mean, yeah. There's there's a bunch of stuff that I have around here that would probably take me hours to explain, but I like to mess around with every year.
Kyle Gorman:Yeah. I mean, it's just really something I like to just mess around with every year and just, you know.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Yeah, that is awesome, and I hope that more young people will take their cameras and start shooting film. I know so many kids today, they have their iPhones and all that, taking pictures all over the place. But to do it in this particular way, think, is so cool. So Tak, tell me a little bit about so once a person, let's say they have been approved, they have been say, yes, we want you to participate, you're on, and they take their camera out. And so tell us a little bit what that looks like.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:So they're given like a particular area of Alameda to shoot pictures in that area. Is that how it works? Yeah.
Taggart Gorman:Yes, that's correct. So once they've been listed, like I said, allowed allowed, that's the wrong word. But once they've been chosen to be the 48, we have a 48 hour period. That's generally around the February. I shouldn't say generally, it's always at the February this year.
Taggart Gorman:I believe it's, Oh, shoot. I had my notes here. Good grief. I had it in my notes a second ago. But anyways, so yes, once the period starts, it starts at Friday night at 9PM and goes through Sunday at 9PM.
Taggart Gorman:The photographer can too can take as many photos as they want. As long as like you said, they've they stay in their area. So, back at the beginning of the competition, well before my time, someone took a map of Alameda and, came up with 48 areas. And if you think about Alameda, you know that that can be a lot of different stuff. We've got areas out at the old base.
Taggart Gorman:We've got areas deep in the heart of Gold Coast. We've got spots on the beach on Bay Farm. And so while a lot of areas probably, you know, this being Alameda are going to have a lot of Victorians in them. But at the same time, if you think about it, you know, if you've got a space at Old Naval Base versus, you know, something in Bay Farm, you're, you know, kind of, you know, what's available to you is going to be a little different. So it's kind of designed to really push photographers to really, you know, take a look at their area and think about, you know what they see.
Taggart Gorman:You know, whether it's, you know, people or clouds or things on the street or, you know, funny juxtaposition juxtaposition of items. But basically, like I said, you know, they could take as many pictures as they want as long as they're in their area. And then, like I said, that's within the forty eight hour period. And then once they're done with that, they generally we have about, a two month period until they have to submit their art. And so during those two months, you as a photographer or so say you as a participant can actually do anything to your art.
Taggart Gorman:So Kyle mentioned that, one of his favorite pictures from last year was heavily edited. So there is no requirement in Alameda on camera to submit something straight out of your camera. If anything, encourage people to grow upon their photos. And so in the end of what we're asking people to submit to the gallery is a photo based piece of art. And so that means that sometimes we will get sculptures.
Taggart Gorman:Sometimes we will get art installations. We quilts, shower curtains. One time there was this one year where somebody put together a suitcase filled with alien artifacts. And part of those artifacts were pictures that they took during forty eight hours. So we want people to go completely wild and use their imagination.
Taggart Gorman:Now it's not to say that a large majority of the art that submitted isn't recognizable photography, but there is no limit at all to what you can do. And this also applies to the youth in that they're allowed to edit their pictures however they want to. Now granted for the youth, they're not allowed to submit sculptures or shower curtains. They are asked to just submit five by seven prints, But what that can be and you know, and also camera wise, it can be an iPhone. It can be, you know, a huge, you know, eighteen seventy big, you know, camera or whatever like that.
Taggart Gorman:We don't care about how you take your pictures because while it's a photo based competition, so it's not a pure photography competition. So however you wanna create your images. We've definitely seen a lot of different things. Last year I actually competed and I actually submitted a few photos that I took with a drone. So once again, it's not based on any kind of photography, it's just photography based.
Taggart Gorman:And so once the artists have, you know, like I said, worked on their photos, some people take them straight out of camera, some people go wild, but when the art is actually do the artists are allowed to submit multiple pieces of work. Now granted, we can only guarantee that one piece will hang because the Frank Betts Center isn't huge, but most likely now, and please nobody can hold me to this, but most likely if you submit a couple pieces, they will be hung or displayed. But it depends on some years. There's just this kind of thing in the air where people submit big pieces of art. And then in that case, there's only so much wall space.
Taggart Gorman:And so we can't hang everything. Other years for whatever reason, people are thinking small. And so if everybody's submitting small little photographs and pieces of art, then we can hang a lot more. So, but like I said, you're only guaranteed one piece that will hang, but by all means, submit pieces. And most of the art that's submitted for display is framed that will hang up on the wall.
Taggart Gorman:But like I said, if it's something more physical sculptures or all these random things we'll accept that too and they will be displayed. So once that's all done, then we have a juror and we haven't officially announced our juror for this coming year yet. So I'll hesitate that we were fairly certain we know who it is, but every year we get a different juror, like, you know, the judges to look at the applications every year we get a different juror and they come from radically different backgrounds. We've had art teachers, we've had professional photographers, we've had gallery reminders. So every year it's going to be something different.
Taggart Gorman:And that kind of means also that the photographers, the participants can't really game the system. You know, they don't know who the juror is going be just because last year's juror really liked a picture of a shoe in the grass doesn't mean anything about who's going to be judging for the coming year. So, but the juror will come to the gallery. We'll look at all the art and we keep the names off of it. So once again, recognize the names.
Taggart Gorman:You know, we don't want there to be any bias, but the juror will go through and we have two youth prizes, best in show and best in show honorable mention. And then for the adult competition, we have seven prizes. Some of them are themed like after dark or nature in Alameda. And then also there's best in show and honorable mention best in show. And once that's all done, then we'll have an event where just the artists are invited opening night and that's where we hand out the awards.
Taggart Gorman:And then the actually gallery will be open with the show for about two months. And I know I wrote those down but I lost them.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Oh, that is so cool. where do we go. Yeah,
Taggart Gorman:Oh here we go the exhibit will run from April 3 through May 30.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:I want people to know, so we are right now today, and by the way, Happy New Year is 01/02/2026. People still have time to put the applications in. Give us the dates where that needs to happen so that people know when to get their submissions in to you.
Taggart Gorman:I'm sorry, you dropped out on me there a little bit, but I think you were asking about when are the applications due?
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Yes.
Taggart Gorman:Okay. Yes. So the applications, we have two sets of applications or two deadlines. The first deadline is going to be January 11 with an entry fee of $40 If for some reason you forget or you can't make that deadline, the second deadline is two weeks later on January 25 and the deadline, I'm sorry, the fee for that goes up to $50 So obviously save $10 get your application in by January 11.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Okay. And people can go to your website. You want to give your website information for everything?
Taggart Gorman:Sure. Yeah, it's frankbettecenter.org. Frank's name obviously is spelled F R A N K and then Bette is B E T T E. And then like I said, center.org. Know, if you go to your search engine and search for Frank Bette Center or Frank Bette Alameda, you'll be able to find it too.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:You'll be able to get it. Yeah. So Kyle, I'm just curious, are you still interested in photography? Are you still taking pictures these days?
Kyle Gorman:Photography is kind of like one of the side things I kind of do through time through time. I mean, I have a lot of I've built up a lot of passions over the years. But, yeah, photography is still definitely one of those things that I do sometimes take in interest here and there. I will be trying to compete this year for Alameda on camera 2026, and hopefully, I get somewhere. But yeah.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Oh, that is just so wonderful. I think this is but I love photography. It's like my favorite art form, so I'm just happy that we have this here in Alameda. And before we go, I want to just talk a little bit about the Frank Bette Center for Art, because not only do they sponsor Alameda on camera, but they have a lot of other offerings too for people. So, Tagg, you want to talk to us a little bit about some of other things that are going on there?
Angie Watson-Hajjem:And you guys probably know where it is. It's that big, beautiful yellow Victorian right there in the corner of Peru And Lincoln here in Alameda. You can't miss this. It's a gorgeous building. So much goes on there.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Tell us a little bit about what we can expect to begin there.
Taggart Gorman:So Frank Bette himself was an immigrant from Germany. He came to America around 1927, I think I heard. Yes. And he actually studied art in Chicago, but, and then he served in world war two. Interestingly, he was working on propellers.
Taggart Gorman:He helped make propellers cause his initial training was, even though he studied art his family profession if you will was furniture repair. So he knew how to do woodworking. So after World War II he lived a little bit in New Orleans but by the 50s he had moved to San Francisco and was doing once again, furniture restoration and repair. And by some point, either the late fifties or early sixties, he had moved to Alameda and by 1962 he had bought the building that is the Frank Betts Center. And so he actually lived and worked out of that building.
Taggart Gorman:The back of the 1st Floor was his little studio apartment and the front was his furniture restoration business, but his passion was art and whether that was sculpture or paintings, he did a little bit that. And as he got older, he was even got interested in writing and poetry. And upon his passing in 1999, he instead of leaving the building to a distant cousin because Frank was not married, didn't have any children, he decided to leave it to the community in hopes that, you know, an art center could be set up. And so by 2002, the Frank Betts Center for the Arts was set up and it's an entirely volunteer run organization. There's no paid employees.
Taggart Gorman:If you go in there at any time and you find someone sitting at the front desk, everyone's a volunteer. So we rely on grants and donations and for that matter, even some of the money from the admissions fees for Alameda on camera and the other events they go to help keeping the senators lights on and the that nice color of paint we've got out there. So, in fact, when Frank asked that it'd be turned into an art center, he said he wanted it to be a place for meetings, readings, showings and other creative doings. So like you say, there are lots of different classes there. And in fact, I don't even know all of them, but we have, you know, creative writing classes.
Taggart Gorman:We have, live drawing, you know, as in terms of, portrait drawings or figure drawing, I guess is a better word. There are multiple shows that will be that happened throughout the year. Sometimes we will have a bigger show like the Alameda On Camera Show or the plein air paint out show, which we have both the front and back gallery all dedicated to that one event. But other times during the year we'll have smaller shows. And so the back gallery, what we call the signature gallery that might have the work of just a single person.
Taggart Gorman:Whereas throughout the year we will have a different, we have multiple different call for art in the front gallery. And once again, this is a community organization. So anyone is encouraged to come by. I mean, everyone's encouraged to come by. Everyone's encouraged check out all the programs that we have.
Taggart Gorman:There's like I said, there's too many that I can even list. In fact, I don't even know what's going on in the next month because there's a lot going on. And also we are focused myself and the rest of the Alameda on camera committee were focused on Alameda on camera since it's going to be at the end of next month. But also, like I said, these little shows that go on all year long, we send out a call for art. Once again, this is always on the Frank Bett website.
Taggart Gorman:But once again, we always want people to participate to be a part of the program to submit art. And so really it's just a community art center, like I said, all volunteer run and we want people to come in and take advantage of this little gem on, like you said, it's Lincoln and its address is 1601 Peru. And we really hope that this message here gets out to people. Please if you're any way interested in photography, please take a look, come to the website, you'll be able to find the information about Alameda on camera. The application is not very tough.
Taggart Gorman:We just really need to know who you are and you submit your three images and your application fee. But every year we get maybe close around half to the people of those 48 are new to the event. And we love that because we always want new people to come in. And you know, one of the great things about it, the center and Alameda on camera and for that matter, you know, the paint outs as it gets people out in the community. It gets, you know, if you're out there in your area, maybe you've never even been in that area before.
Taggart Gorman:Or, you know, maybe you're not from Alameda because by no means is Alameda on camera just restricted to people who live in Alameda. You know, if you can come for that weekend and take some pictures, then by all means, you know, apply.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Yeah, wonderful. And what a beautiful legacy that Frank Bett left to Alameda, this wonderful center. It's just fantastic.
Taggart Gorman:Absolutely, yes.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:Tag, thank you so much for coming on the show, and I also implore people definitely, as Tag has said so eloquently, if you have any interest in photography, definitely go on the Frank Betts website, check out Alameda on camera, get your application in. I think you'd have a really great time. And if you don't want to do photography, there's all the other great classes they have: sculpture, writing, poetry. I went on there earlier today. It's just gorgeous things you guys offer people. It's just wonderful.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:So thank you once again for coming on our show. I really appreciate talking to you and you sharing with us this wonderful tradition here in Alameda. Thank you both.
Taggart Gorman:Thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk about it.
Angie Watson-Hajjem:And thank you for listening to our podcast. Hope you enjoyed the show. Take care, goodbye everyone.