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Member showcase — John Boyd Hon FPSNZ Hon PSNZ APSNZ
Member Showcase
Immediate Past President Moira Blincoe LPSNZ shines the spotlight on John Boyd Hon FPSNZ Hon PSNZ APSNZ in our Member Showcase series.
There would be few members of the Society with the depth of knowledge and history of the Society that John Boyd has. In my 12 years of service on Council, when discussions have floundered on historical specifics, John was so often mentioned as the one who would have the answers.
John is a longstanding and well-known PSNZ member, having first joined the Society in 1962, he says, ‘So that I could receive the bi-monthly NZ Camera magazine”.
Although he can’t quite remember the exact year, he thinks it was around 1957 that he joined his first camera club, the Alexandra Photographic Society. Since then, because he was moved around the country in his banking career, he has been a member of the Dunedin Camera Club, Milton Camera Club, South Canterbury Photographic Society, Twizel Outdoors and Photography Club, Christchurch Photographic Society, Dunedin Photographic Society, Taupo Camera Club − and is now a longstanding member of the Wellington Photographic Society.
John was born with the “service” gene in his DNA, and throughout his photography journey, he has continually “given back”. He has served as a committee member, Secretary or Treasurer and was integral to the clubs' ongoing development and sometimes survival. He is a former President of the Society, a national and international judge, and has mentored many. In 1963 he became part of the newly formed PSNZ National Panel of Judges. In the mid-1970s, he became a member of the Senior Advisory Panel (of Judges), the forerunner to the Judge Accreditation Panel. In 2013 he became a member of the newly developed Judge Accreditation Panel launched by former President Shona Jaray APSNZ and completed two terms plus one year, totalling seven years.
John has also played a significant role in the history of the PSNZ Honours Board. Commencing in 1989, he served as a board member for five years, followed by seven years as the board secretary, and attended board deliberations on five other occasions. In 2012 he was appointed joint coordinator with Newell Grenfell Hon PSNZ FPSNZ FNPSNZ to assist the Board with administrative and marketing aspects. Although not a panel member involved in the assessment process, John ensured the board’s feedback and comments were documented, so they were appropriately included in the member’s result letter. Often, he would be up until 2.00 am, compiling the letters for the board chairman at that time.
In 2015 John was appointed as Patron of the Society, a role he has undertaken not just as a figurehead but as an active listener and advisor to successive Presidents and the Society.
Although John’s not sure of the total number of conventions attended, he says it’s ‘certainly over 50’, with his first one in Queenstown in 1964.
Over the years, John and Val were enthusiastic international travellers, but with the arrival of COVID, their wings were clipped, and they now enjoy seeing more of their own country. As John says, many great post-convention holidays have been shared with fellow members such as Newell and Jacqui Grenfell, Ron and Joy Willems and Bruce and Anne Burgess.
His photography speaks for itself, and he can boast a healthy list of awards accumulated through entering many national and international competitions and salons.
When one’s spouse is also a keen photographer, the passion is duplicated. Val has attended as many national and regional conventions as John has, takes lots of photos, particularly on trips, and has exhibited with some success over the years. John says Val is his most critical judge and ‘I respect her opinions’. In fact, ‘Val's probably had more images printed in NZ Camera than I have,’ he said.
With the arrival of a significant decade birthday last year, John quietly indicated that he wanted to make way for new blood to serve as Patron. He will step aside from that role later this year.
I know you are not going anywhere, John, but the Society thanks you for your contribution so generously made throughout your membership and during your role as Patron. The Society has greatly benefitted from this, and we are all grateful.
Please describe your first steps into photography.
Although I had access to a couple of cameras at primary school and bought another at high school to record tramping trips at the behest of a friend, photography was not my interest. For my first camera purchase, I had been taken to a local professional who had a small shop and studio at the back of his garage. He became my mentor, developing the black and white prints and eventually giving me a colour transparency film when I consistently refused to buy one because of the cost. As a result, he insisted that I go to the local camera club. The first night I went, I was entranced by the slides, which showed the Central Otago landscape in a way I hadn’t seen before.
What was your first camera purchase?
The first one was some sort of Agfa box camera, soon swapped for a 35mm Agfa Silette to take slides, and then, as passion grew, a Pentax S1a with a combination 135/225 Tamron telephoto lens. That served me for many years. Finishing Touch
Morning Departure
Member Showcase
Did you shoot in negative film or slides?
Colour transparency.
Did you do your own printing?
From time to time, but never for competition. I was bullied into going into the darkroom in the ‘80s, when in Christchurch, to make a print to qualify for the “Printmakers”, a group of six amateurs and six professional photographers, the best known of whom was Andris Apse.
If so, in what year did you start printing?
1966, when the house we bought came with a darkroom at the back of the garage. Dunedin mentor Ernie Ashby had given me a homebuilt enlarger.
What is your preferred genre?
I love all genres but mainly try to make landscape and maritime images.
What situations inspire your photography today?
Travel, domestic and international, weather conditions (e.g., fog, storms) and grandchildren’s sport.
Do you think your photographic eye has changed over the years?
Not really, but I have become more minimalist.
How do you think being a judge influenced the members' photography in those early years?
I’m not sure that I influenced anyone, but the recorded commentaries of the Society’s founding judges, including Fred Bowron, Matheson Beaumont, Len Casbolt and others, certainly influenced me. In those days, competitions were the lifeblood of the clubs and were, for me, the incentive to make pictures. From Fred, I heard for the first time a judge expressing a personal interpretation of what a particular image meant to him − because it had broken the rules of composition as I understood them.
What is the most important thing photography has taught you?
To see! Light, arrangements, patterns, repeating motifs, incongruity, beauty − that I would never have seen and appreciated otherwise.
Which other photographers have inspired your photography, and why?
Many, many images seen in competitions and exhibitions have individually inspired me, but for bodies of work, Fred Bowron and Matheson Beaumont were especially inspiring because their images had a special simplicity and sensitivity. Most recently, Simon Woolf’s encouragement during the lockdown to take photos of our view of Wellington Harbour has led me to enjoy the simplicity of patterns of water which judges are very unlikely to admire. I have also found inspiration in exchanging images and comments with fellow PSNZ member Newell Grenfell Hon PSNZ FPSNZ FNPSNZ.
Member Showcase
Do you think camera clubs in New Zealand have contributed to the growth and popularity of photography?
Absolutely, and they have been the nursery for many who have turned professional.
Do you think club photography has influenced a more “pictorial” approach to photography vs creative or fine art photography?
It did, and even the strong natural history interest in clubs tended to be encouraged along pictorial rather than scientific lines. I think that PSNZ helped clubs (and judges) move towards more creative work through the introduction of an “experimental” section in the National Exhibition and, in the same way, towards more documentary work through the introduction of photojournalism in the early ‘70s. While the range of work seen now in clubs is very much broader and includes some fine art, I do wonder if we should also be more encouraging of documentary images that will be of historical interest in the future.
Do you think the clubs provide the right environment for someone wanting to learn the art of photography?
I think that within clubs and their programmes there is a wealth of experience, knowledge and education that is invaluable for someone keen to learn, and many clubs are good at promoting these aspects. Unfortunately, not all clubs can attract new members and cannot compete against the other tuition opportunities available.
What’s in your kit today?
My primary camera is a Lumix FZ300 bought at the last National Convention, plus a polarising filter. It replaces an FZ70 which doesn’t entirely operate as it should and that in turn replaced a sequence of other Lumix bridge cameras. There is also a 40-year-old tripod, sparingly used! Fish Story
Have you set goals for yourself through your photographic journey?
My only goal has been to enjoy my photography.
Over the years, you have given so much to PSNZ; what has PSNZ given to you, personally?
PSNZ has given me much more than I have ever contributed. Largely through judging, I have gained public speaking confidence that helped me enormously in my work life. It has also given my wife Val and me special and enduring friendships within a nationwide family by attending national and regional conventions and many other activities.
What advice would you give to a new photographer?
Join a club and get involved to get to know and enjoy the people. Enter the competitions. Learn about judging because thinking about what makes others’ images successful is a huge help in improving your own.
Ensure you don’t get too focussed on limited genres, and make sure you take plenty of your family because they grow up so fast. Back in the day, one camera loaded with transparency film was a constraint. In hindsight, I should have had a second camera.
Any other information about yourself you would like to share?
I would not have enjoyed photography as I have without the loving support and tolerance from Val and the kids. They had to put up with me sitting in a paddock for ages − waiting for the light to change or to act as figures in the landscape, and spend their holidays at conventions.
Evening Promenade
