‘Pool’, one of the Highbury photography club’s snaps

A MAN who says he faced abuse online while taking part in heated debates over road closures in Islington has founded a positive space on the internet in his photography club.

JC Hermier founded the Highbury photography club to make friends and meet like-minded people in lockdown.

In the year it’s been active, its membership has ballooned and it now has a waiting list of people from all over north London.

Every week, the group runs a competition where members take a photo in relation to a particular theme.

‘Egg’

Mr Hermier said: “People look out for the challenge, they say things like ‘I’m voting for number one but my daughter is voting for three’ and so on, it makes people talk to each other, it’s been the positive side of social media.”

After its online success, the group has started organising in-person events with photo walks and expeditions specially designed for people with mobility issues.

‘Tracks’

Mr Hermier is the only professional in the group and most people take the photos on their mobiles.

He said: “Every week the standard is going up, even though people come and go. The first theme was ‘smoke’ and then ‘patterns’; we’ve had so many now, but my favourite was ‘penny’, it was really fun. One guy painted a penny and put it on a fence and so it looked a bit melted, it was like one of Dali’s clocks.”

JC Hermier

He added: “I’m involved in the LTN [Low Traffic Neighbourhood] debate and I’m exposed to all the negativity that goes on. I’ve had people stalking me online, saying weird things, very personal attacks.

“But there’s nothing like that here. We’re a bunch of misfits really, some of us can’t go out of our homes, and it’s a way for them to connect with other people. It’s a community.”

Members are currently mostly women aged between 35 and 70, based in Camden, Hackney and Highgate but anyone is welcome to take part.