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The History of the Portsmouth Camera Club The First One Hundred Years 1888 to 1987

This is the History of The Portsmouth Camera Club.

From its humble beginnings, through the war years, through its ups and downs, successes and failures.

The records enabling this document to be made, are held by the current Club Historian, William (Buck) Taylor. Without his foresight and enthusiasm, and of course the other historians throughout the years, this full and up to date record would not have been possible.

Bill has spent many years gathering information for this project, probably in the eyes of his long suffering wibe, Bina, too many. I would like to, on behalf of the Club, say “Thank you” to Bina for allowing him to gather this information, and to Bill, I say “the Club and its members owe you a very great debt for the diligent way in which you have persued these records, saving them from destruction”. “Thanks me old cocker” My only influence on these records was in preparing them for print, putting the items in some semblance of order and maybe by putting the odd comment here and there. Otherwise everything will be seen through the eyes of Bill.

I hope that you enjoy reading this history of your Club, or if you have picked this copy up somewhere and would like to join the Club, please contact your local library for the address of the current Secretary. Should you have any, or come across any artifacts that relate to The Portsmouth Camera Club, again could you please contact the current Secretary.

This record was compiled between 1990 and 1993 and completed in November 1993.

Trevor J Muston President 1992/93

Trevor Muston - President 1992/93

Well, here it is! The culmination of many years of researching, collecting and sifting. Seeking old photographs published in the Portsmouth Evening News and other local papers.

After the Centenary, I decided that what was needed was a more comprehensive history than that provided in the Centenary book.

What form should it take? Should it read like a story or be a series of facts? My aim was to try and make it a light approach (history can be so boring).

Over the years a number of dedicated and well known people have been members, the most well known was FJ Mortimor, famous for his ‘Wave’ photography, who worked very hard.

There is no doubt that in the early days, a number of people played a very important part in the Club affairs, Nortinor, Dawe, Dr Lord, Davies, Thompson to name but a few. But, this is about the Club, run by an ever changing band of enthusiasts.

I eventually spent 2½ years sifting through all the bits and pieces, but I now needed HELP. This arrived in the form of Trevor Muston. We spent many hours discussing the format of the project. To lighten up the history of the Club, we decided to approach Lee Weatherley, a country member living in East Grinstead, Sussex. Lee is a superb cartoonist, having produced the front cover for the Annual Exhibition for many years. We asked him if he would assist us by making a cartoon for various entries that took place throughout the Clubs history - he readily agreed. We also thought about entering some old adverts from the times, to slip between pages.

Certainly, some of the Exhibition Catalogues would make interesting reading.

In the course of my poking about, I acquired a small collection medals, cups and spoons, although for me, pride of place must go to the membership card of our first President, Mr Jeffries.

Mick Cooper has agreed to start the next centenary (he seems as mad as I am). Although as this first hundred years was not completed until 1993, we will include the extra 5 years in this historic book.

Well that’s it, I hope that you find it interesting. I only know that I am very pleased to see the project come to an end. Without the help of Treor, I think that I would have given up years ago, thanks mate.

There may still be some sifting for me to do yet, you never know what avenue you will turn down tomorrow, but you can always hope.

Bill Taylor

William (Buck) Taylor

Presidential Roll of Honour

1888 Mr B Jeffrey 1889 Mr B Jeffrey 1890 Mr J J Thomson 1891 Captain Cobb RN 1892 Commander Cobb RN 1893 Commander Cobb RN 1894 Dr Lord 1895 Major Bruno 1896 Major Bruno 1897 Captain Lamb 1898 Mr G Whitehead 1899 Mr G Whitehead 1900 Mr H T Lilley 1901 Dr Newby 1902 Dr Newby 1903 Mr H T Lilley 1904 Mr F J Lawton 1905 Mr H T LIlley 1906 Dr H A Canning SDC 1907 Mr A Debenham 1908 Colonel J R Johnstone CB 1909 Colonel J R Johnstone CB 1910 Mr A B Casey 1911 Mr E T Hall 1912 Dr Bertram Stone 1913 Dr Bertram Stone 1914 Mr S Dawe 1915 Mr S Dawe 1916 - 1918 Club Closed Informal meetings held for the duration of the Great War. 1919 Club re-opened. Cecil Davies was asked to get the Club running again.

1920 Mr C S Hopkins 1921 Mr C S Hopkins 1922 Dr Bertram Stone 1923 Dr Bertram Stone 1924 Eng.Commander E J Mowlam RN 1925 Mr J C Thompson 1926 Mr L W Hewett 1927 Mr W C Harvey 1928 Miss N K Shephard 1929 James C Thompson FIC 1930 James C Thompson FIC 1931 James C Thompson FIC

1932 Major E C Whittle 1933 Mr C C Davies ARPS 1934 Mr T W Manby 1935 Mr T W Manby 1936 Mr A G Akehurst AMIEE 1937 Mr H Coker 1938 Mr W C Webb 1939 Mr W C Webb From 1939 to 1945 the Club officially closed, but carried on in an unofficial manner under the guidance of Charles Fry. Many famous photographers who were stationed in Portsmouth were very glad of somewhere to come and natter.

1945 Mr W C Webb 1946 Mr W C Webb 1947 Mr H W R Lubbock 1948 Mr R A Thomas 1949 Mr R A Thomas 1950 Mr H P Bishop 1951 Mr J A Hewes 1952 Mr C H Guy 1953 Mr C Fry ARPS 1954 Mr R H Cake 1955 Wing Commander R D Coath 1956 Mr F E Clements 1957 Mr J A Hewes AIBP ARPS 1958 Mr J A Hewes AIBP ARPS 1959 Mr F J Davies 1960 Mr N G Kelsey FRIBA 1961 Mr N G Kelsey FRIBA 1962 Brother Aldhelm 1963 Mr T W Lawson 1964 Mr R H Cake IRIBA ARICS 1965 Mr S H Woodriffe 1966 Mr S H Woodriffe 1967 Mr E Faber 1968 Mr A J Samson 1969 Mr J E C Moorey 1970 Mr J E C Moorey 1971 Mr B E G Doherty 1972 Mr R J Male 1973 Mr W D Taylor 1974 Mrs Dora Cake

1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Mr R N Moore Mr R N Moore Mr G Roberts Mrs Lily Male Mr P Chambers Mr F Goldsmith Mr R A Taylor Mrs Bina Taylor Mr A Nicholls Miss Madge Farrant Mr S Wood Mr J Markwell Mr S Shaw Mr G Lack Mr R A Hall Mr E Winterford Mrs Valerie Wood Mr T J Muston Mr M Cooper Mr D J Cook Mr A Spencer Mr P Downer

Secretaries over the Century

1888 Dr F Lord 1889 Mr E H Martlew 1890 Mr E H Martlew 1891 Major Bruno 1892 Major Bruno 1893 Major Bruno 1894 Major Bruno 1895 Mr G Whitehead 1896 Mr G Whitehead 1897 Mr G Whitehead 1898 Mr F J Mortimor 1899 Mr F J Mortimor & Mr G Wood 1900 Mr F J Mortimor 1901 Mr F J Mortimor 1902 Mr F J Mortimor 1903 Mr F J Mortimor 1904 Mr F J Mortimor 1905 Mr F J Lawton 1906 Mr F R Hoyte 1907 Mr C Wood 1908 Mr F J Lawton 1909 Mr J C Thompson 1910 Mr J C Thompson 1911 Mr J C Thompson 1912 Mr J C Thompson 1913 Mr J C Thompson 1914 Mr J C Thompson 1915 Mr J C Thompson 1916 - 1918 Club Closed Informal meetings held for the duration of the Great War. 1919 Club re-opened. Cecil Davies was asked to get the Club running again.

1920 Mr C C Davies 1921 Mr C C Davies 1922 Mr C C Davies 1923 Mr C C Davies 1924 Mr C C Davies 1925 Mr C C Davies 1926 Mr C C Davies 1927 Mr C C Davies 1928 Mr J Hawkins 1929 Mr J Hawkins 1930 Mr J Hawkins 1931 Mr H Coker 1932 Mr H Coker

1933 Mr H Coker 1934 Mr H Coker 1935 Mr H Coker 1936 Mr L Scott 1937 Mr L Scott 1938 Mr C C Davies FRPS 1939 Mr C C Davies FRPS From 1939 to 1945 the Club officially closed, but carried on in an unofficial manner under the guidance of Charles Fry. Many famous photographers who were stationed in Portsmouth were very glad of somewhere to come and natter.

1945 Mr H P Bishop 1946 Mr H P Bishop 1947 Mr H P Bishop 1948 Mr H P Bishop 1949 Mr H P Bishop 1950 Mr H P Bishop 1951 Mr H P Bishop 1952 Mr H P Bishop 1953 Mr H P Bishop 1954 Mr H P Bishop 1955 Mr R S Portlock 1956 Mr R S Portlock 1957 Mr R S Portlock 1958 Mr R S Portlock 1959 Mr W D Taylor 1960 Mr W D Taylor 1961 Mr W D Taylor 1962 Mr W D Taylor 1963 Mr W D Taylor 1964 Mr W D Taylor 1965 Mr W D Taylor 1966 Mr W D Taylor 1967 Mr W D Taylor 1968 Mr W D Taylor 1969 Mr W D Taylor 1970 Mr W D Taylor 1971 Mr A Nicholls 1972 Mr M Scadden 1973 Mr M Scadden 1974 Mrs Gladys Moore 1975 Mrs Gladys Moore 1976 Mrs Gladys Moore

1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Mr G Green Mr R N Moore Mr R N Moore Mr R N Moore Mr G Barber Mr R Hall Mrs Valerie Wood Mr R Hall Mr R Hall Mrs Madeleine Burden Mr R Hall Mr R Hall Mr P Downer Mr P Downer Mr R Hall Mr R Hall Mr T J Muston Mr T J Muston Mr T J Muston Mr T J Muston Mr T J Muston Mr T J Muston Mr T J Muston Mr P Downer Mr P Downer Mr T J Muston

A portrait of an unknown Club Member of the eraly 1920s. This has been inserted as a tribute to the many other members past and present who have taken their part in forming the club over the years.

Members, who for one reason or another have not been named, but have been stalwart workers or just social members. They have all had their parts to playand played them with vigour and tenacity. For all those members that have not been mentioned throughout the history, this is our tribute to you.

Throughout the history are copies of old programmes.

We have also interjected amongst the pages many old adverts and photographs collected by the Club Historian, Bill Taylor, over the years.

I hope that you will forgive the quality of some of these photographs, as some of them do not reproduce well as photocopies.

Should you wish to see the originals, then please speak to the current Historian, Bill Taylor (1993), who will, I am sure, be only too pleased to show them to you.

It is the year of 1888. A group of photographers decided that it was about time that a Camera Club was started in Portsmouth, and to this end a number of inaugural meetings were held at the residence of a Mr Cooke in King Street, Portsea. At the final inaugural meeting it was agreed that ladies be admitted to the Club and a meeting was arranged for April 25th 1888 at the YMCA in the High Street.

April 25th 1888 Mr C Jeffrey occupied the chair, when a steering Committee was formed consisting of Messrs G Garrick, F Cooper and T Snelling. The object in forming the club was to unite photographers in and around Portsmouth. There was also the need to procure a Club Room with, if possible, the necessary equipment used in photography. The meeting was adjourned until the 4th May 1888. This meeting took place at the YMCA in Edinburgh Road.

May 4th 1888 The first Annual General

Meeting was held at the Grosvenor Hotel in Southsea.

The following were elected to office:President: C Jeffrey; Vice Presidents: H Hickey and R Garrick; Treasurer: H Nicholls; Secretary: H Martlew; Other Committee members were Messrs. L Cooper, W Cooke, F Hooper, C Jurd, G Knight and C Nicholas.

Patrons: Lt. Col. Sir William Crossman, Lt Gen. J W Cox, Messrs. W A Callaghan and C C Claremont.

The following points were agreed upon.

1. Professional Photographers could become Honorary Members.

2. To hold meetings on the first and third Thursdays of each month.

3. The subscription to be 5/(25p) per annum, paid in advance.

4. To be called the Portsmouth Amateur Photographic Society.

5. The set of rules compiled by the steering committee were accepted without change.

This is a quote from the

original rule 3. “The Club shall consist exclusively of Amateur Photographers and those desirous of becoming such, whether Lady or Gentleman. Any person not actually gaining a livelihood by the profession of photographer, to be considered an Amateur”.

Amongst the records gathered over the years are a number of mentions of the author Doctor Arthur Conan Doyle being a member. This clashes on some occasions with other information available, indeed one old member in his notes said that ‘Conan Doyle’ had been Secretary in 1910 or 1911. There was obviously some confusion over ‘Conan Doyle’, so some ferreting around to sort things out seemed in order.

The facts as far as can be safely ascertained are as follows:He arrived in Portsmouth to seek his fortune as a General Practitioner in 1882, having been born and brought up in Scotland, coming from an Irish Catholic family.

Among his possessions in a

large wooden trunk, when he alighted from the coastal steamer at Clarence Pier were his brass name plate, medical degree and his photographic gear, comprising of a large wooden box camera, separate lens and a set of glass photographic plates. With this amount of photographic equipment, it is logical to assume that he would have been associated with members of the Club.

As a Doctor he eventually made his surgery at No 1 Bush Villas, on the corner of Elm Grove (now Kings Road) and Castle Road.

The building on the site now is called Bush House.

The only real evidence found was that a number of Club Members attended a farewell dinner held in his honour in December 1890 when he left Portsmouth for Vienna. He was reported to be living in Hindhead in 1892, and came back to Portsmouth to give the occasional talk.

June 5th 1888 At today’s meeting in the Club room, Mr Jeffery read a communication from Messrs Symonds & Co. in the High Street, offering members reduced prices for developing and printing.

It was also decided to have the rules of the Club printed on a linen faced card, folded in two, which would also serve as a membership card The President read a paper which members agreed was extremely interesting on the optics of photographic lenses.

The paper evoked a lot of discussion, leading, as became usual, to one or two somewhat heated arguments.

The President also told members that:

Lt. Gladstone RN would be giving a course consisting of 6 lectures, starting at 9pm on October 30th.

Certificates would be awarded to the photographs taken on the various excursions planned for the summer.

The first Annual Exhibition would be held on November 28th, 29t and 30t . There were 5 classes to compete in. Entries had to be in by October 21st.

Captain Lamb showed specimen prints of the three types of Platino Paper at present on the market.

Lt. Gladstone read a paper on Architectural Photography, he stated after reading it that in his opinion the best studies were the simple ones, such as details of carvings giving the best pictures. He closed his talk by pointing out that a basic knowledge of architecture was desirable.

A very lively discussion ensued after, ending when the President closed the meeting, saying that everyone was entitled to their opinion.

Mr A Fisher, Headmaster of the Gosport College of Art, gave a talk on “Composition in Art and its application in Photography”. He referred to the vagueness in the word ‘composition’. A good subject did not guarantee a good picture. Artists ask themselves “will it make a good painting”.

Photographers should do the same.

Photographers were handicapped in having only form, light and shape to consider, whereas the artist had the advantage of colour. In his opinion, the most important part of any picture was the point of

view, “generally speaking I consider that if it looks right it conforms”.

January 24th 1889 The Club changed venues from the YMCA to rooms at No.3 Kings Road, Southsea.

The meetings continued here until 1894.

A series of lectures on general and elementary chemistry will be given by the Secretary in the Club room during February and March starting on February 5th. At the next ordinary meeting, Captain Lamb will talk about the preparation of Lantern Plates.

Mr A Fisher, of the Gosport College of Art, gave a talk on the various types of Architecture. Although not connected with Photography, it was proving to be a favourite subject with members of the Club. The talk ranged from Saxon times up to the present day, with Dr Fisher touching lightly on the various periods.

The talk was illustrated throughout with some superb lantern slides, and, from the questions asked, it was obvious that members found it an absorbing subject, given by an interesting speaker.

An excursion out and around the Town was arranged for the following Saturday, to put into practice the advice given by Dr Fisher. From the attendance it was obvious that much interest had been generated. After the afternoons work the members retired to a local watering hole to discuss the merits of the afternoons activities.

An Amateur Photographic Society for Portsmouth.

A meeting in connection with the above was held at the Young Men’s Christian Association, Edinburgh Road, on Wednesday evening last.

Mr C Jeffrey occupied the chair, and a committee was formed of the following gentlemen:- Messrs. C Jeffrey, C Nicholas, L Harding, F Hooper, F Snelling and G Carrick.

The object of forming this Club is for uniting the amateur photographers of the borough, and procuring a club-room with a dark room attached, containing the necessary apparatus used in the photographic art. It is also proposed to various excursions during the summer. As a large number are expected to join, the fee will only be a nominal one.

The meeting was adjourned till Friday, May 4th.

From the Portsmouth Evening News, dated April 28th 1888

PHOTOGRAPHY OF TODAY EXHIBITION AT PORTSMOUTH The eleventh annual exhibition of the the Southsea Amatuer Photographic Society was opened in the Society’s Rooms, 5 Pembroke Road, Portsmouth, on Monday and was viewed during the day by large numbers of visitors.

In previous years the exhibition had been confined exclusively to the members, but on this occasion open classes were arranged for amateurs and professionals at home and abroad, with very gratifying results. The show being, without doubt, the most successful inaugerated by the Society.

There were over 600 exhibits, half of which were the work of the members of the Society.

Although the portrait studies were for the most part the work of the professionals, some splendid results were shown by local amateurs. A number of

pictures not for competition were lent by local professionals, including some good enlargements

by Mr W V Amey, Landport and yachting subjects by Messrs G West and Son, Southsea and Symonds and Co, Portsmouth. In addition to these a collection of photos was lent by the Royal Photographic Society, to which the local Society is affiliated.

The success of the exhibition was largely due to the efforts of the Committee, of which Messrs G Whitehead and H T Lilley, MA, were respectively President and Vice President, and Messrs FJ Mortimor and G Wood, Secretaries.

Mr TS Ward, Mr H Symonds, and Dr F Lord officiated as Judges.

Appended is a list of the prize winners: Class A. Landscape Views (open to members only). 1, Mr HT Lilley MA.; 27 Mr Gilbert Wood; 3, Mr HJ Hissett.

Class B. Seascape and River Scenery 1, FJ Mortimor; 2, HJ Hissett; 3, A Fisher ASA. Class C Figures 1, HT Lilley; 2, FJ Mortimor; 3, Colonel EJ de Salis.

Class D Architecture. 1, Gilbert Wood; 2, A Fisher; 3, Major General Byam CB. Class E LOCAI Views. FJ Mortimor Class F. l, FJ Mortimor; 2, FA Hodge.

Class G. Lantern Slides. 1, A Fisher; 2, FJ Mortimor; 3, EH Purvis and Colonel EJ de Salis.

Class H Landscape (open).

1.Viscount Maitland; 2, GJT Walford; 3, Greystone Bird Class I Figures l, Pirie Macdonald; 2, Viscount Maitland; 3, J Chaffin and Sons Class J Hand Camera Work. l, Dr E Boon; 2, W Fisher-Ward; 3, Walter D Wlford Class K Isntern Slides 1, W Archibald; 2, WE Cowan; 3, A Watson; 4, R Bull The exhibition will be open today from l0am to lOpm No charge will be made for admission Taken from the Portsmouth Evening News dated 31st January 1899

The Photographic Exhibition.

Mr F J Mortimor, who previously occupied the honorary secretaryship of the Southsea Photographic Society, has consented to succeed Mr Gilbert Wood ARUBA, in that position.

The exhibition that is being continued at the Pembroke Road Rooms to-day and to-morrow has proved to be an artistic success, and Mr Mortimor hopes to arrange a yet more successful one in the autumn. Two gems of art in the present show are an excellent full-face portrait of an old salt who hails from alongside the Camber, and a picture of a swollen torrent. The ancient mariner’s face is a mass of radiating wrinkles framed in a sou’wester, and his mouth is adorned with the indispensable short clay pipe, the whole forming a most interesting study This photograph is in the noncompetitive class. The second takes the silver medal in the open landscapes. The torrent rolls over a straight ledge of rock running away from the camera.

The feature of the picture is the subservience of the background to the waters that roar over the fall and are half hidden in a heavy mist rising from below. A long instantaneous exposure has saved the waters from a “cotton wool” appearance.

Altogether the picture is a marvel of the photographer’s art.

The exhibition is open each day, but a small charge for admission is made to the lantern exhibition of prize slides and animated war photographs.

From the Portsmouth Evening News, February 6th, 1901

Amateur Photography The fourteenth annual dinner of the Southsea Amateur Photographic Society, was held on Wednesday evening at the “George” Hotel, Portsmouth In the absence of Dr Newby, the President, the chair was taken by Mr. HT Lilley MA, the ex-President, and many members and friends were present After the toast of ‘The King” had been honoured, Mr F Field, on behalf of the Society, asked Mr Lilley’s acceptance of a photograph of himself; taken by Mr Mortimor, the Hon. Secretary, and shown at the recent exhibition Mr Lilley in reply thanked the members for their present, and expressed his pleasure in doing whatever he could to assist the Society The remaining toasts were “Success to the Photographic Society”, responded to by Mr Field, and ‘The Visitors”, proposed by Mr Summers and responded to by Mr AH Ward. During the evening Messrs.

Steele, Storrs-Walier, Summers, Wood, Mortimor, Warren and Denham contributed to a musical programme From the Portsmouth Evening News, dated February 16th 1901

...unfortunately the sun did not favour us with an appearance

An outing to Portchester Castle was arranged for the following Saturday, but unfortunately the sun did not favour the members with an appearance, which is really essential for Architecture photography.

1890 Last night a packed assemblage of spectators witnessed in the Victoria Hall, Southsea, an exhibition of Lantern Plates, given under the auspices of the Southsea Photographic Society.

The views taken by all the Club Members were in every respect extremely admirable productions. For the purpose of transparencies, where the subject is enlarged so many degrees through an optical lantern, it is necessary that the original negative shall be of the most perfect character and every one of the views shown excelled in the clearness of the definition, right up to the edges of the pictures.

Particularly fine were the plates of Cathedrals. The work of Lt. Gladstone, who was manipulating the Lantern, with the assistance of Dr Wardrope RMAC, was immaculate throughout the evening. The interiors were remarkably

clear and bright. Lt. Cobb read the descriptive accounts of the various photographs as they were thrown up onto the large screen. At intervals Messrs J J Rockett, HarrisonSmith and J W Peters sung musical selections. A very pleasant evening was spent by the Patrons, Members and friends of the society. Dear me, it sounded more like a Naval operation!

The second Annual Dinner was held. My reason for mentioning this was because the young Mortimor accompanied by his father, who was a member, gave a banjo solo. It seems that during these evenings the gathered throng, at some point, would be entertained by fellow members.

J Thornton read a paper on “The Figure Study” The main points were that in his opinion the genre or figure class took precedence, from an art viewpoint, and although he appreciated the work that the landscape, seascape and architecture workers put into their pictures, it was his considered opinion that the figure study was the most difficult. It was apparent that not all the members agreed with him, because there was a very lively debate, with quite a number of diverse views being put.

A new Photographic Society has been formed in East Southsea, with a view of enlisting those whom do not aspire to the lofty claims of the existing society.

A quartet of club members

discussed the camera, this led to a very lively evening indeed, the four could not agree amongst themselves about which camera was the best and the meeting became a general discussion controlled by the President, who refused to allow more than one member to express his view at a time.

A snippet of news of the time ..... Successful local Photographers.

The Photographic Society of India awarded Messrs. West & Son of Southsea and Gosport, a Gold Medal for the second time, making 32 that they have won altogether.

The club members are not an assertive body as a rule, but they are making good progress for all that. Saturday evening gave friends the opportunity of participating in the pleasure of amateur photography.

Holding an “AT HOME” in the clubs HQ at 3 Kings Road. Principal feature was the showing of dissolving views, the plates being the work of the members.

Mr Farney-Brown granted the use of his new showroom for the occasion and a capital darkroom it made. Lanternist was Captain Lamb, Dr F Lord gave the commentary.

Among the views shown were several by Lieutenant Gladstone who recently gained second prize in a world-wide competition. The evening finished up with a musical section led and organised by Mr J J Rockett.

Mr G G Inkspen, a member, showed other members a walking stick stand that he

had invented. Mr Inkspen who lived at 112 High Street, Portsmouth was hoping to go into production with it. A lot of interest was evinced as members handled the stick.

The general opinion was that it would be a very useful addition to a photographers kit, having a twofold use.

The club rooms at Kings Road presented quite en artistic appearance, the walls being covered with neatly mounted productions of the members, hung for the Annual Exhibition. There were more than 600 prints on show. The work showed every conceivable description, Landscape, Architecture, Statues, Portraiture plus Lantern Slides. Some of the work was, as one might expect with a club exhibition somewhat crude and unfinished, but the award winners, a delicacy of touch was discernible, which would have done credit to a Professional.

Winners Silver Medal: Dr Tirehurst (Contact print), Special mention: Haymaking and Killiecrankie, Bronze Medal: FJ Smith for two views of Dovedale, R Leventhorpe Commended for Burnham Beeches and Ullswater.

Enlargements Silver Medal: JJ Thompson for Old Peggy, Bronze Medal J Sawyer for St Peters Church. Capt. Lamb, A Jersey Lane and G Gurd with Portsmouth Harbour were commended.

Other exhibitors FW Bedford, Dr Lord, GC Inkspen, Dr Newley, GH Grant, A Fisher and AW Ward.

The judges were Messrs West and Alfieri

1891 The Annual General Meeting. The President JJ Thompson said that the club had had a very successful year.

Finance wise the Club was quite sound, the meetings had been well supported, as had been the exhibition and trips out and about. The following were elected to office.

President: Captain Cobb Hon. Vice Presidents: LG Bonham Carter, Commander Gladstone and Captain Lamb. Vice President and Treasurer: JJ Thompson.

Secretary: Major Bruno.

Assistant Secretary: Dr Lord. Council: Dr Lord, Messrs Fisher, Grant, Leventhorpe and Sawyer.

... hard work with cameras amongst the ruins

June 6th 1891 A large number of members went on an excursion to Portchester Castle. Tea was served in the Castle grounds, with a group photograph being taken by Mr Knight of Castle Road, Southsea. After tea there followed a couple of hours hard work with cameras among the ruins. About 60 good photographs were obtained by members. The outing proved both pleasant and profitable.

HT Lilley gave a talk on the Bromoil print and how to achieve it. He explained very thoroughly the steps required to get a satisfactory result, showing samples of the various stages as they arose.

He explained that it was possible to remove completely unwanted detail. Very fine work could be produced by care in using the dyes and crushes and lots of practice.

A cycle trip to Emsworth to explore the Harbour and surrounds led by Mr Jeffery.

After a most instructive, busy and enjoyable evening the 21 members present, retired to a local Tavern to discuss the evenings work over a glass or two of liquid refreshment!

The Grand Jury Room in the town was filled last night by members and their friends who gathered to see Commander Gladstone’s photographs, taken during a tour of Brittany. The views, shown by the use of a powerful Oxy-Hydrogen light lantern, were chiefly of ecclesiastical architecture. In themselves the photographs were very interesting, but Commander Gladstone’s commentary made them doubly so. Rouen, Caen, Bayeux, Dinan and Mount St Michel, along with others of the old Norman Towers were visited. The photographs showed that the Commander had a very keen perception as well as the Archaeologists love and reverence for Works of Art of the past ages. In describing Renaissance, the Gothic, Norman and Flamboyant styles of

architecture he enthralled his audience with a little of his own enthusiasm, and fully deserved the hearty Vote of Thanks at the close of the evening. Not withstanding the colourlessness that necessarily accompanies all photographs, the Commander’s vivid descriptions made it an easy matter to supply the local colouring themselves, being aided by his apt quotations from Ruskin.

The Mayor and Mrs ScottFoster were among the packed audience.

Lunch was taken at the Black Rabbit before sallying forth for the afternoons session.

Tea was taken in Arundel over which the day was discussed, all agreed that the weather had been fine and sunny, and that it was hoped that some good work would result from the days activities. The President, Commander Cobb was thanked for his organisation of the trip, which had been most enjoyable.

object was to show the varied results obtainable horn any one negative by varying the process.

1894

April 12th 1894 A very interesting talk illustrated with pictures and lantern plates was given by Mr J Kittering entitled, with pony and trap through the West Country”. Mr Kittering told members that, assisted th August 20 by his son, they had travelled Alderman Ellis JP gave a to Exeter by steam train. practical demonstration of Here they hired a pony 1892 and trap and commenced the Autotype Process of printing. He showed a number a round trip embracing the Annual General Meeting. southern coastal towns of of undeveloped prints and The election of officers Dawlish and Teignmouth, proceeded to develop them, proceeded as follows: thence to Newton Abbott explaining the manipulation President: Commander and Buckfastleigh, across required. Major Bruno Cobb. Vice President and Dartmoor to Tavistock on to showed members a new Treasurer: Mr JJ Thornton.

Launceston then Plymouth, printing frame. Newingtons Honorary Vice Presidents: back across Dartmoor to Patent which permitted the Mr LG Bonham-Carter, examination of the entire print. Moretonhampstead and back Commander Gladstone, to Exeter, once again returning Captain Lamb. Council: home by steam train. Mr Dr Lord and Messrs. Fisher, Kittering explained to the 1893 Grant, Leventhorpe and members that the epic voyage Sawyer. Major Bruno was took a month in all, with Annual General Meeting. elected Secretary succeeding This is of some interest. several adventures occurring Dr Lord, whose resignation Because of the Stirling work on the way. Like struggling from the post had been done during the year, which across Dartmoor in a mist, the received with great regret. A was unanimously endorsed by Horse shedding a shoe and Vote of thanks were expressed the members, the Officers and one of the wheels shedding a to Dr Lord for his services to Council were re-elected “En tyre, otherwise it was a very the Society since it’s formation, Bloc” for the coming season. in which he had always evinced This is unusual to say the least, the greatest interest. Next yet it did happen. meeting will be the showing of the prize lantern slides of the The AGM was held at the Amateur Photographers 1891 Clubs HQ. The treasurer Competition. reported that the club was on a sound financial footing.

The secretary reported Photographic day trip to that membership numbers Arundel, 52 members had been maintained. The attending, having travelled by Club decided to contribute ... Dartmoor in the mist, the horse shedtrain. After the mornings work, an Album to the RPS, the ding a shoe

enjoyable trip. They had been warned of the dangers of footpads (was this a term for this type of travel? Editor: No, it was a highwayman.) but only met with kindness end great interest throughout the journey. He showed many splendid pictures taken on the journey which showed up just how interesting it had been.

June 22nd 1894 The Club moves to new premises at No 5, Pembroke Road, Southsea. Here was an extremely comfortable building indeed The headquarters included a lecture room, an enlarging room and darkroom with private lockers, and also had a library with all the current photographic literature.

A resident caretaker was installed and it was open at all reasonable hours. I understand from Cecil Davies that at one time a bar was installed which was open on Club evenings.

The Clubs name was changed to the Southsea Photographic Society. The Club remained here for a number of years.

September 7th 1894 Dr Upfield was invited to give a talk on Tri-Colour Carbon process. Dr Upfield who travelled from London proved to be a very interesting speaker, he told members that it was possible to produce perfect colour prints, replicas in colour of the original that were virtually permanent.

The whole process was somewhat lengthy but could be completed in about 8 hours, although it was possible to do it piecemeal. He stressed that

extreme care was essential when registering the three special Tri-colour pigmented tissues that were required for the process, they were Cyan, Magenta and Yellow.

The tissues were sensitised in a two bath solution, contrast being controlled by the time in solution B (20-60 secs). (Note from Bill Taylor 1992 A couple of colleagues of mine in the Air force and me, played around with this in WW2 and we found it a lot of fun.)

Dr. Upfield finished by showing a selection of prints by this process to the members, all greed that they were excellent 1895 January 1895 A feature of this particular evening was a rather sad one. It was the exhibiting of a collection of lantern plates from the works of the late RE Rejlander, one of the first photographers to produce something more interesting than the ordinary portrait or view. There were some very fine plates projected, which showed what a tremendous imagination he had. His early death was a great loss to photography.

March 1895 Mr Ward from London, arrived at the Club meeting to give a lecture on Printing in Clouds and other things. This evolved into a very humorous and instructive talk, by a worker who obviously knew what he was about. Mr Ward showed a series of prints before and after they had been ‘doctored’,

in a very painstaking manner.

One point that he stressed very much, was the importance of getting the right cloud. He had brought along two samples from recent exhibitions in which he was a judge (he had asked for them).

The first one had the clouds lit from the right, whilst the base was lit from the left. The second was even worse, the clouds were upside down! He said that he couldn’t stress enough the importance of getting it to look natural. There were 50 many questions that the President had to call a halt and thanked Mr Ward for a most informative and humorous evening.

Lieutenant Crutchley gave a talk on “Making Lantern Plates the Scientific Way”.

The Lieutenant gave a rather technically involved and exacting method of Producing lantern plates. The results obtained were first class, but from the questions asked it was obvious that one or two of the established Club workers thought that it was far too involved.

At a date that we have been unable to establish, although it is thought that it was probably sometime during June or July, a group of members had a long weekend in Bath. About 20 ventured on the trip, the object being to photograph the very fine buildings in the City, in particular the Roman Baths and the Crescent. It would appear that there was a small group in the Club who specialised in Architectural photography,

and the object was to compile a folio of various localities.

The idea after that was to hold an exhibition in the Club room, with a medal being donated for the best study.

This information came from an elderly Gentleman, Mr Sinclair, whose grandfather Mr HT Lilley was a very active member of the Club. He also told me that if he could find any medal won by Mr Lilley he would present them to the Club. SO FAR NO LUCK. If these or any other Club Memorabilia should turn up in the future, could you please contact the local library for the name and address of the Club Secretary.

1896 President Major Bruno, Secretary G Whitehead. The first outing of the summer season was held on Saturday May 16th. A very enjoyable afternoon was spent at Grange

... ladies had not admitted as members!

Farm, Lee on Solent. Until the institution of a junior section at the beginning of the year, ladies had not been admitted as members (**see note), but it must be said that the fair sex contributed in no small degree to the success of the afternoon.

Most members had arrived in a variety of horse drawn vehicles, whilst one or two hardy SOULS used bicycles!.

At the close of the afternoons work, tea was served on the green sward by the Presidents wife. **One thing that I find a little peculiar, The original rules state (I have a copy) that, “Membership is open to all amateurs whether Lady or Gentleman”.

October 8th 1896 A Mr Trent from Winchester talked about the after treatment of the negative.

He explained that he was talking about intensification and reduction. After a very interesting talk explaining the various chemicals and methods required, Mr Trent demonstrated that it was possible to achieve a great degree of control, making it possible to improve a negative greatly. He also showed a method to physically lighten local shadow areas using a material called ‘Frictol’, he told members that ‘Metal Polish’ worked nearly as well.

One point that he stressed a number of times, was the importance of practice.

Practice so as to become really familiar with the various processes, there were a large number of formulas around, so it was up to the worker to find the one that suited him. A really splendid evening.

his report on the society’s progress during the year.

There had been a large increase in the membership.

Income amounted to nearly £80 against £50 the previous year. The business included the election of officers, Major Bruno was re-elected President for the second year along with the Secretary G Whitehead. A full programme of Photo-cycling excursions had been arranged for the summer. (Bills comment: It’s very frustrating when the rest of the officers are not printed in the paper).

May 5th 1897 Interesting to note that Arthur Conan Doyle had not forgotten his friends in Portsmouth, returning to give a talk at the Portland Hotel.

June 23rd 1897 An excursion to Southwick took place. Members arrived on bicycles, horseback and carriages. Major Bruno had given a cup for the best set of four lantern plates taken at Southwick. After the afternoons work everybody retired to a local hostelry for sandwiches washed down, no doubt, with a glass or two of the local brew and to discuss the afternoons work. Major Bruno was thanked for the arrangements and the Cup. A large number of members had turned out for this memorable afternoon “over the hill”.

1897 February 5 1897 The Annual General Meeting took place. The secretary read th

September 1st 1897 A splendid lecture/ demonstration was given by a Mr Hawkins from London.

Mr Hawkins was a professional photographer. His subject for the evening was the GumBichromate Process, he explained that the process had been around since the 1850’s and was still being produced by a number of adherents, he was one of them. Basically it was using a solution of Gum and Bichromate to coat onto a sheet of paper. When dry it was exposed under a negative then developed in water, cold, warm or hot, until the exposed portions of the pigmented gum were washed away. It was only suitable for fairly large work, therefore a large negative was required, preferably on glass for ease of handling.

From the interest shown and the questions asked, it was obvious that the Club could look forward to a spate of prints derived from using this process.

The President this year was Captain Lamb. During October this year, a Professor A Reynolds gave a most unusual talk to the Club.

His theme was that married couples who had lived together harmoniously for a long time, began to resemble each other, the longer the time the more the resemblance.

Mr Reynolds had travelled all over Britain and Europe taking pictures of married couples, copying or acquiring pictures of them when they were young. He showed the Club 76 ‘Sets’ of prints to prove his theory. The evening evoked a lot of discussion and questions from members, it being fairly obvious, that the majority of members, had to say the least, misgivings over

the Professors theory. An extremely interesting evening which showed the use that photography was having on different aspects of society.

December 1898 The President, Captain Lamb showed a selection of lantern plates of Gibraltar and parts of Spain. The plates were superb, as one had become to expect from the President, who is a very expert photographer.

This, coupled with his very detailed descriptions and witty manner, made a very fine evenings entertainment, about an area that not many members had visited.

1899 January 31 1899 Elected as President for this year was HT Lilley. The 11th Annual Exhibition took place at the Clubs Headquarters in Pembroke Road. In previous years the Club had held two Exhibitions, one for Members early in the year, whilst later in the year an Open Exhibition was held. It was decided that from this year there would just be one Exhibition, open to amateurs and professionals alike from home and abroad.

There is no way of knowing why, whether because of lack of support or expense, this had to be changed. (This is some of the little things that are so intriguing, whilst researching the history of the clubs).

Over 1600 entries were received with more than 600 being hung, half of these being from Members. In those days all exhibits were behind glass and framed!! There is no doubt that the success st

Banjo solos from Messrs. Mortimor, Main and German

of the exhibition was due to the tireless work of the joint secretaries, FJ Mortimor and G Wood.

February 4th 1899 Annual Dinner and Smoking Concert. Mr HT Lilley, The President presiding and in replying to the toast of lathe Camera Club” by Dr F Lord, mentioned the possible formation of a ladies section in the coming year. The evening finished with a programme of music including songs by Messrs Pitt, Summers, AH Wood, G Wood, N Wilkinson and Colonel De Salis. Banjo solos by Messrs. Mortimor, Main and German. The piano was played by Mr E Cowan.

March 1899 A display of lantern plates by the club were shown at the Portland Hall, Southsea.

This was for the Mayors Fund for the relief of Widows and Children of soldiers killed in South Africa.

A packed hall watched a splendid display of plates taken from many parts of Great Britain and the Continent, with commentaries given by the authors. The subjects covered a very large range and

from the remarks, were very much appreciated.

The Mayor HR Pink who along with the Mayoress attended, thanked the Club for a really splendid show. He remarked on the commentaries which he found most interesting, some of the architectural studies were really magnificent and finally it was obvious from the crowded hall that his fund would benefit greatly.

April 1899 Mr AA Hardy gave a talk called “The camera never lies or does it?” Mr Hardy had a most amusing manner, speaking at times with his tongue in cheek, he showed a number of pictures. He called them the finished article, then showed the original print and explained how he had manipulated the negative, adding and removing parts.

He explained that although it was a bit tedious, with care, thought and imagination a lot could be done. Some of the finished prints bore very little resemblance to the original.

From the questions put to him it was Very evident that many members were extremely interested.

The President HT Lilley in thanking Mr Hardy said that we were fortunate that there were people who were prepared to travel to visit clubs.

1900 October 5th 1900 Opening meeting of the winter session. There was a larger than usual attendance of members both male and female to listen to Mr

Donmore fromLondon. His talk about Unhand camera works gave many hints on how to go about it and produce a good sharp negative. This seems funny today talking about whand cameras”, but in those days, the tripod was a must, but we were on the verge of the hand camera.

December 8th 1900 HJ Hisset, a member, gave an interesting demonstration on the Sandell Cristol Spool Film Tank. He successfully developed 12 x ½ plate films simultaneously although the exposures ranged from l second to several minutes.

He also showed some interior lantern plates of dark corners that required as much as several exposure.

February 16th 1901 Dr Newby had been elected President. The 14th Annual Dinner was held at the George Hotel. In the absence of the President Dr Newby, who was confined to bed, his place was taken by past President HT Lilley.

April 12th 1901 A Portsmouth Art Gallery.

The Club suggested that the Council should provide an Art Gallery for local clubs to show their work, it was certainly needed. Perhaps in the near future, Portsmouth will be indebted to the Society for a knowledge of Art that it does not now possess.

May 2nd 1901 More than one person passing

the Clubs Headquarters could have been forgiven in thinking that lightning was about, because at intervals the clubs windows would have given that impression to the outside world.

The energetic Secretary, FJ Mortimor was giving a practical demonstration on flashlight photography. Every type of flash lamp and patent flash powders was used.

Powerful directional flashes were shown using clay pipes!

Mixtures of PerchloMte with Magnesium was shown to have a better aetinic value than pure Magnesium. however the most brilliant flash was obtained by burning Magnesium in pure Oxygen.

November 1st 1901 Visitors night. The large lecture room was overflowing with friends of members who watched a fine display of lantern plates and animated pictures, given by one of our most energetic members, Mr LG Dyer who is one of the foremost members in this flourishing club.

A large scale Exhibition was Planned for December 3rd to 7th.

November 15th 1901 The Society has planned a very interesting programme for the Winter, among the highlights are LG Steele on “With Camera and Ice Axe in the Canadian Rockies”, WG Lewis on “A little known part of the Welsh Coast” and Colonel R Carrington on an “Amateurs Cruise in Norwegian Waters”.

April 18th 1902 Mr Norman Parsons, the well known sea painter is exhibiting a folio of his most recent work at the Camera Club HQ, in Pembroke Road. They were remarkably fine paintings and evoked much comment from the members. They will be on display from the 18th April until 30th April.

December 1st 1902 The artistic poster “The Spirit of Photography” designed by Mr FJ Mortimor, the talented Hon. Sec. of the Southsea Photographic Society, has attracted a great deal of attention on the local hoardings in the last fortnight.

It is intended to advertise the Annual Exhibition, held under the auspices of the Southsea Society, which is certainly above average of such shows.

The collection of pictures is a very fine one, and the general public should not miss the opportunity of visiting the Pembroke Road rooms whilst it is open. An attractive feature of the Exhibition is a splendid projection of lantern plates which is given free each evening.

In addition to the series of articles on flashlight photography which Mr

... boldly resisting immense waves

Mortimor is now writing for Photogram, he is now contributing some interesting articles on Wave photography to the magazine, Photography; illustrating a cluster of giant rocks boldly resisting immense waves. Some of the original wave pictures by Mr Mortimor are on show at the Exhibition. A very large gathering of members and friends assembled to listen to the Mayor, Sir William Dupree, open the Exhibition.

The Mayor presented a Gold Medal to the winner of the competition at the Exhibition.

1903 January 30th 1903 Visitors night at the club rooms in Pembroke Road. A packed room of members and friends were there to see the lantern display provided and the presentation of medals awarded at the recent Exhibition. Mr Luther, who is a member gave an excellent series of animated photographs, interspersed with some delightful landscapet figure and architectural photographs. In the interval, the President, HT Lilley apologising for the absence of the Mayor, who had another engagement, presented the medals. He hoped the time was not too far Jistant when the Society’s efforts as an educational factor, to say the least, would receive municipal recognition in the shape of better accommodation being placed at their disposal for the Annusl Exhibitions, which were as big and far reaching as any in England.

The Gold Medal presented

by Sir William Dupree for the best average was soon by

Mr CC Cook, and the silver medal taken in the Members Champion Glass was taken by Mr LG Steele. To the Hon. Sec. FJ Mortimor, who had exhibited in the open classes in the competition, with workers from all parts of the World, no fewer than four medals (2 silver and 2 bronze) had been awarded. It was announced that the Mayor had again presented another medal for competition at the next Exhibition; and Gold, Silver and Bronze medals were also offered by the Portsmouth Natural Science Society, for Photographic plates of Historic spots in Hampshire, Sussex and the Isle of Wight.

February 26th 1903 Colour Photography by Mr Frank Miall.

Mr Miall gave a most interesting demonstration of the Lumiere process of colour photography before the members of the Southsea Photographic Society in their Club room. Guests had been invited and the room was full.

The process is claimed to be not only the simplest and most practicable, but by far the most inexpensive.

Three separate negatives are taken on orthochromatic plates through coloured screens.

Positives are made on a specially prepared tissue, and the prints developed by the use of HOT water. When dry they are stained by immersion in dye baths, and, being again dried, are placed on top of each other.

The blending of the films gives a result which is a reproduction of a transparency as near as possible in natural colours of the object photographed.

The colours are ‘Red-

Orange’, ‘Green’ and ‘BlueViolet’. Some fifty finished transparencies were shown on a screen by the lecturer. It was obvious from the questions put to Mr Miall that immense interest had been aroused by the process. Mr Miall was thanked by Mr HT Lilley.

March 12 1903 th

... greatly enlarged germs of various diseases

Photomicrography. Mr JA Foster gave a demonstration on this very interesting subject, one that is not usually seen in camera clubs. There was an unusually large audience including a number of the medical profession and friends of members. Mr Foster had a very lighthearted approach to his subject, he explained the workings of the apparatus on show, saying that it was rather expensive at £120. He then projected a large selection of greatly enlarged germs of various diseases. Mr HT Lilley thanked Mr JA Foster for a most interesting and absorbing talk given in a lighthearted manner.

June 6th 1903 An Honour is bestowed on the Club Secretary. Mr HT

Lilley told members that FJ Mortimor had been invited to talk to the Royal Photographic Society on ‘Wave Photography’.

This was a subject on which he had studied very closely, and becoming a nationwide authority on.

November 12th 1903 The 16th Annual Exhibition at the club room was a very successful undertaking, with nearly 1000 prints hung, submitted from workers all over the country. The judges had had quite a task, there being over 2500 prints entered. The judges declared it to be the finest provincial Exhibition that had been seen.

December 18th 1903 Photographic Lens Making as practised by Messrs. Taylor, Taylor and Hobson, makers of the famous Cooke lenses.

Mr Smith from the firm, using lantern plates, took the club through the various construction processes necessary to produce a first class lens. He showed how the various faults were overcome during the manufacture of the lens, it was quite obvious that very precise methods were required in an optical workshop. There was no room for ‘rule of thumb’ methods.

1904 Mr A Debenham, a member, gave a talk on the ‘Carbon Process’, a printing medium, which unlike the silver image was permanent. He explained the why’s and wherefore’s of the process then proceeded to

demonstrate how to go about producing a print. On the walls of the room were some exceedingly fine examples of the process done by Mr Debenham.

February 19th 1904 The Annual General Meeting was held. The Treasurer reported that financially the Club was on a sound basis and provided no crisis arose we could manage very well indeed.

The Secretary reported that the Club had had a successful season with a number of innovations being tried, some of which had proved very promising.

Election of Officers.

President: HT Lilley, Vice Presidents: A Fisher, LG Bonham-Carter and HT Hisset, Treasurer: TS Hayte, Secretary: FJ Lawton, Assistant Secretary: G Wood, Lanternist: EH Purvis, Council: Dr Phillips, WM Cliffe, SG Black, AA Lawton, AB Casey and G Stanford.

April 22nd 1904 Mr FJ Mortimor talked to the Club Members on the subject about which he is rapidly becoming the leading expert, “Wave Photography”. He illustrated his talk with lantern plates. Members were told that as it was important to get the line of the Wave correct, this often involved him going right into the water and letting the waves come right over him.

This was the only way to get it right on many occasions, he stressed that it was important that the equipment was thoroughly cleaned afterwards

Southsea Amateur Photographers There was a large attendance on Wednesday evening at a meeting of the Southsea Amateur Photographic Society, held at the headquarters, No.5 Pembroke Road. Captain PN Buckley RE, gave a very interesting lecture on “Photography and Focal-plane work in Australia”. The lecturer is himself an Australian, and his pictures of life in the great towns of our great southern Colony were most admirable. He is a keen horseman as well as a keen photographer, as his fine pictures (shewn on the screen) of jumping horses and accidents taken at the big steeplechase meetings in Melbourne, Sydney etc. proved. They were all taken with the focal-plane shutter working at 1000th of a second, and were splendid examples of instantaneous photography. Capt Buckley is a distinct acquisition to the ranks of the society, and he brought his subject right up to date with excellent pictures of the Ophir, the Royal Yacht in which the Duke and Duchess of York and Cornwall will visit Australia, and the launch of the Kent, which was christened with Australian wine.

As the society has asked Mr FJ Mortimor to again undertake the duties of Hon.Sec., he hopes to make the society as popular and useful to those interested in photography in Portsmouth and the district as he possibly can.

The rooms are being made more comfortable, and the members cordially invite attendance of any photographer, amateur or professional, at their weekly meetings, which are held at 8.30 on Wednesday evenings.

An attractive fixture list of lectures and demonstrations has been arranged up to the end of the year.

From the Portsmouth Evening News, dated March 8th 1901

Southsea Photographic Society.

The Southsea Amateur Photographic Society, which has its headquarters at 5 Pembroke Road, has attracted the attention of the Amateur Photographer, the leading paper of its kind.

In an appreciative notice of the society’s work the journal says:“For a long time whilst northern societies were flourishing, and had become notable factors in the progress of photography, the societies in the south-west and west of England seemed too much imbued with the more slumberous and slow going temperament which one associates with their more enervating climate, but the above society bids fair to prove a brilliant exception, and will thus it is to be hoped, set the pace for others. To that end it is already exhibiting a vitality which it is to be hoped will prove contagious.

From the list of summer outings now before us, the Southsea Photographers have combined with the Portsmouth and Gosport Natural Science Society and a local literary society, the Mayor and local MP’s appearing as patrons, the former having offered a gold medal for the forthcoming exhibition, particulars of which will be announced shortly.

All particulars as to membership etc. may be had from the Hon. Sec. Mr FJ Mortimor, 10 Ordnance Row, Portsea, or at the headquarters.”.

By the way, Mr Mortimor has just got out a new form of application for membership, which briefly outlines the advantages of the Society.

Its perusal may be commended to local photographers, amateur and professional, who would probably find it advantageous to become members.

From the Portsmouth Evening News, dated July 18th 1901

The Photographic Exhibition The artistic poster, “The spirit of photography”, designed by Mr FJ Mortimor, the talented Hon.Sec. of the Southsea Photographic Society, has attracted a good deal of attention on local hoardings in the past fortnight.

It is intended to advertise the annual photographic exhibition, held under the auspices of the Southsea Society, which is certainly above the average of such shows. The collection of pictures is a very fine one, and the general public should not miss the opportunity of visiting the Pembroke Road rooms today and tomorrow. An attractive feature of the exhibition is a splendid collection of prize lantern slides which are given free each evening. In addition to the series of articles on “Flashlight Photography” which Mr Mortimor is now writing for The Photogram, he is contributing some interesting articles on “Wave Photography” to Photographers in a recent number of which was a very fine picture entitled “No surrender”, illustrating a cluster of giant rocks boldly resisting immense waves. Some of the originals of Mr Mortimor’s “wave” photographs are on view at the exhibition Taken from the Portsmouth Evening News, dated December 19th 1902.

Southsea Photographic Society.

Wednesday was visitors night at the Southsea Photographic Society’s rooms in Pembroke Road, and there was a good attendance of members and friends to see the lantern display provided, and the presentation of medals awarded at the recent exhibition. Mr Luther Dyer, who is a member of the society, gave an excellent series of animated photographs, interspersed with beautiful pictorial slides of landscapes, figure and architectural photography. In the interval, the President, Mr HT Lilley MA, after apologising for the absence of the Mayor, who had another engagement, presented the medals. He hoped the time was not far distant when the society’s efforts as an educational factor to say the least, would receive municipal recognition oin the shape of better accommodation being placed at their disposal for the annual exhibitions, which were as big and as far reaching as any in England.

The gold medal presented

by Sir William Dupree for the best average in members classes was won by Mr CC Cook, and the silver medal in the members’ champion class was taken by Mr LJ Steele. To the Hon Secretary, Mr FJ Mortimor, who had only exhibited in the open classes, in competition with workers from all parts of the world, no fewer than four medals (2 silver and 2 bronze) had been awarded.

It was announced that the Mayor had again generously presented another gold medal for competition at the next exhibition; and gold silver and bronze medals were also offered by the Portsmouth Natural Science Society, for photographic slides if historic spots in Hampshire, Sussex and the Isle of Wight.

From the Portsmouth Evening News, dated January 30th 1903

and the plates developed straight away.

May 13th 1904 “Notes on Architectural Photography” by A Fisher. Mr Fisher showed many examples with some superb prints. He stressed that with this type of photography it is important to have the verticals vertical, so often one sees sloping or tilting verticals which look terrible.

For some of the dark interiors you will need very slow plates, which sometimes meant very long exposures in the order of two or three days.

To digress a little.

In the possession of the Club Historian, Bill (Buck) Taylor (1992), is an Exhibition Catalogue dated 1904. it makes very interesting reading. During this period all exhibits were framed and under glass. Processes included Platinum, Carbon, Ozobrome, Gum-Bichromate, Cellodion and Bromide, all with their own individual style and appearance. All prints were for sale and prices varied from 7/6d (37½p) to £5.00, unfortunately it is not possible to say what percentage of the price charged was for the print and what percentage was for the sometimes very large frames.

Some prices of items which I found interesting; for 1/- (5p) per week one could purchase a camera from Messrs Knights in Castle Road. A quarterplate Marion Camera complete, without lens was £12.00, Hypo or Fixer was 2d (lp) per pound or 7lbs for a 1/- (5p), Printing out paper, Postcards 2/6d (l2½p) per 100, Bromide Postcards 3/6d (l7½p) per 100, Quarter plate glass plates were 9d (4p) and 1/- (5p) per dozen, H & D speeds 100, 200

& 300. Lastly, but no doubt some will think not least, a 4½ gallon Cask of Portsmouth Bitter was 6/9d (34p), Mild or Stout 4/6d (22½p), and a bottle of fine old Scotch Whisky, Highland Blend, just 3/7d (l8p).

latitude in the personal control.

It should be a very useful addition to the processes available to all.

January 27th 1905 “Rising to the Occasion” by WD Welford October 4th 1904 Mr Welford is an old hand, who Three members assembled has been exhibiting for many to talk about ‘Developers and years, whilst also being a judge Development’. of an lntemational Calibre.

Mr FS Hoyte whose favourite The walls of the Club room developer is ‘Ortol’ explained to were lined with prints that the members why he liked it. had been exhibited all over Mr A Lawton followed with a the world. His talk was very description of ‘Adurol’. interesting, his theme being Mr G Ash spoke on the that initially all photographers properties of Pyro Soda. The trod the same path, then came three of them then proceeded a cleavage, when they dispersed to develop some plates each In into one of the many facets their own favourite ‘brew’. of photography ie. technical, The President then asked for landscape, portraiture etc. any questions from the floor, Hence the title of his talk, when and it was apparent that a the divide comes rise to it. number of the members had their own ideas as to which developer they preferred. A very February 18th 1905 lively end to the evening came The occasion of the AGM. The when the President thanked all retiring President said that it three for a very enjoyable nights had been another successful work. year, although nothing spectacular had happened, just steady progress. There 1905 had been a slight increase in January 13th 1905 membership. The Treasurer told members that the balance President: HT Lilley. A new sheet showed that the Club printing process “Auto-Pastel” was on a reasonably sound was firstly explained, then footing, and that with care, demonstrated by the Secretary we could manage very well FJ Lawton. The exposed paper during the coming year. Reis developed in HOT WATER elected for another term of by abrasion with a wide Camelhair brush. As the image office were the President: HT Lilley, the Treasurer: FS Hoyte, appears the development, may and the Secretary: FJ Lawton. be local or general according Vice Presidents: Messrs. to the wishes of the operator.

Highlights may be lightened or Bonham-Carter, Black, Barrell, Cliffe, Dawe, Fisher, Hissett, introduced, unwanted detail Whitefield and Dr Phillips. suppressed or eliminated.

Assistant Secretary: AB Casey.

Companion pairs of prints Council: Messrs. Homan, emphasised the tremendous

to repeat it next year.

“In Birdland with a camera!”

AA Lawton, Cooley-Martin, Stanford, Wood and Colonel Johnstone.

April 14th 1905 The well known Naturalist G Pike with “In Birdland with a Camera”.

Adventures to the Welsh Hills.

Norfolk Broads, Bass Rock and the Farne Isles were the subject of this lecture. The beautiful slides which illustrated this talk, many produced in colour by the Photographic/Gave process, gave emphatic evidence of the care, patience and love of his subject. It was very difficult to pick out any outstanding pictures as the standard was so high.

The President announced that the arrangements were well in hand for a December Exhibition.

December 1st 1905 A packed house assembled to see some of the pictures and slides of the Societies tour of Normandy. Colonel Johnstone and Messrs. AB Casey, FS Boyte, AA Lawton and AW Ward, between them had covered every conceivable subject. It was hoped that more pictures could be seen at a later date from other members.

It was also agreed that it had been a splendid trip and hoped

would be seen by many clubs all over the country, as the final selection of the RPS will go on th a countrywide tour.

December 19 1905 April 6th 1906 Photographic Prize Night All 150 Lantern Plates from The Ex Mayoress, Mrs JE the Amateur Photographer’s Pink attended to award the medals and plaques won by the Annual competition with critical notes from the judges entrants. had been obtained for showing There was a special plaque to the members. This proved to presented by the Southsea, be an extremely lively evening Southampton and Hove with members adding their Societies, which was won by Mr Anderson of Barnes, Surrey. own remarks. The President told members that included in the summer programme was a visit to Belgium, with 1906 th the special object of obtaining January 19 1906 Architectural studies for the Mr J.H.Avery talked on forthcoming exhibition. There ‘Bromide Printing’. would be a special section in He showed a number of the exhibition for which there samples of his own work, was a plaque and silver medals which were extremely fine. donated by members.

He told members that perfect prints were possible if only the amateur photographer stuck to simple methods, be methodical April 13th 1906 Mr A Debenham talked to the and avoid the slap dash work Club about Lenses and their that is seen all too often. selection for special work. He Mr Avery is a Photographic avoided too many technicalities.

Tutor, who amongst his other Talking in a very lucid manner, scholars had the Sultan of he dealt with the subject under Morocco. The Sultan himself three headings. is well acquainted with the photographic process, including First, the Pinhole camera (NO LENS), example shown was a the three colour process, portrait, exposure 25 seconds. making the half tone blocks Next, he traced the history himself. of the lens, from the first lens designed for photographic th work right up to the beautiful March 19 1906 anastigmats of the present day.

An extremely interesting Finally, he referred to the wide evening in which members angle for confined areas and had submitted lantern plates tele-photos for distant work. covering a very wide range of subjects. The object was to select sets for entry into a April 19th 1906 competition being run by the One of the Club ‘Masters’ Royal Photographic Society. in technique, S Dawe, gave a The Judges were HT Lilley demonstration in making an and A Debenham. If the panel submitted by the Club is enlarged negative. He showed selected by the RPS, the panel the production of a 15” x 12”

negative using parts of five negatives. Dawe explained that it was essential that very careful planning was carried out before hand to know where the various ‘BITS’ were to go, so that a composite negative could be produced. The negative was then photographed down to a more usual size. Mr Canning, the President told members that the Club was extremely

... using parts of five negatives.

lucky to have members of Mr Dawes Calibre who were willing to impart their knowledge.

May 5th 1906 “Carbon Printing” by FJ Stedman.

Mr Stedman explained that the process had been simplified and brought to perfection by the experiments of a Mr Swan.

He demonstrated the ease with which delicate pictures could be produced by washing in cold water! The evening was enhanced by instructive comments from Messrs.

Debenham, Dawes and Ward.

October 11th 1906 Mr F Slater FRPS with “Theory and Practice of Time Development”.

He explained to the Club very explicitly that all plates and films, whether under, correctly or over exposed, there was only one time and temperature for them, and that the best results regardless of exposure were obtained by time and temperature. From the comments of the Club, it was obvious that although the majority of the members agreed with Mr Slater, a number of the old die hards, did not!

evening was voted in superb success, probably one of the best so far.

October 30th 1907 A special General Meeting has been called.

This must have been the year of divided opinions, it was fairly obvious that a fair old rumpus ensued during this evening, although of course I have no idea of the why’s and wherefore’s, only that it happened. The special meeting was called to consider a scheme of re-organisation submitted by 1907 th a large section of the members, January 12 1907 The date of the Annual General this was apparently because of their dissatisfaction with the Meeting. Mr Canning, The President, reported that he had present set-up. I do think it is worth recording in full. had a very enjoyable year in There was a full attendance, office. and the scheme submitted, with The following members were elected to office for the coming a few minor alterations was carried unanimously. It was season:proposed by Colonel Johnstone, President: Mr A Debenham, seconded by Mr FWJ Lawton Vice Presidents: Messrs L and supported by Messrs Bonham-Carter, HA Canning, WH Barrell and S Dawe, that, WM Cliffe and A Fisher, “The Club be renamed the Secretary: G Wood, Treasurer: Portsmouth Camera Club with G Whitehead. The Lanternist a reduced annual subscription. was JC Thompson. Council: The meetings will be held at WH Barrell, Dr Beddow, SO Black, S Dawe, WH Dugan, FT the same Headquarters in Hoyte, AA Lawton, J Cromwell, Pembroke Road, Portsmouth, L Prior and GS Young. and that all the photographic apparatus, pictures, furniture and effects will automatically January 26th 1907 become the property of the reA packed clubroom of organised Club’” members and friends gathered One can only envisage what to hear Mr SG Kimber give a led up to it all. I bet it was talk on the history and beauties interesting. What wouldn’t of Winchester Cathedral.

I give to have been a fly on Mr Kimber, who is the the wall? Apparently the presiding ‘Genius’ of the subscription was reduced to 7/6 Southampton Camera Club, (37½p) per annum with a l/has won many distinctions as a (5p) entrance fee. I don’t know specialist on the Architectural whether this was because the branch of photography, club was so prosperous or the illustrated his talk with a reverse in order to attract new selection of lantern plates. The members. The same officers

carried on running the club.

This change was to be put into effect at the next AGM in 1908.

The club continued to run two Exhibitions, a summer one for the members and an autumn open one which attracted the leading workers of the day.

1908 A copy of an entry from the Portsmouth News on January 17th 1908.

The renaissance of the old Southsea Photographic Society as the Portsmouth Camera Club was firmly established at the AGM of the members, held at 5 Pembroke Road. Mr A Debenham occupied the chair, and the business dealt with included most satisfactory Secretary’s and Treasurer’s reports ably presented by Mr Gilbert Wood, the retiring Hon.Sec. The Officers elected for the ensuing year are; President: Colonel Johnstone C.B., Vice President: Mr WH Barrell, Treasurer: Mr J Cromwell-Prior, Secretary: Mr FJ Lawton (Gosport), Asst Secretary: Mr WH Dugan.

Council: Messrs AB Casey, S Dawe and JC Thompson. With a greatly reduced and now merely a nominal subscription, the Officers of the Club are confident of attracting a much larger membership. As the organisation is the only one of its kind in the district, local camera workers will find its utility unquestionable under the present regime. A revised winter programme is in the process of preparation. Great expense has been incurred in bringing the club rooms up to date, and in this respect, comparison can be favourably

sustained with any other photographic society in the Kingdom with a similar subscription level.

March 12th 1908 Willy Kay from the Southampton Camera Club, gave a talk on “Mounting by adhesive mounting tissue”.

Whilst demonstrating the procedure, he said that ‘to his mind there was no doubt that this method was superior to any other’. One point that he made was the importance of getting the mount colour to complement but not overshadow the picture.

Mr L Manners from Brighton.

Mr Manners proved to be a very serious able photographer, he showed some very nice examples of his work also one or two sets showing the differences between using different films and lenses.

Among the hints given were using the right camera for the job, correct lens, a rigid support and most important of all, the correct plate and colour screen to obtain a true rendering of greens and yellow.

December 17th1908 Old Portsmouth was the theme of the genial Vice President, th March 26 1908 WH Barrell.

Gloucester and its Cathedral by Mr Barrell is well known in the High Street, having a large Dr Campbell. printing works situated there.

Dr Campbell is a member of A full club room of friends the Gloucester Photographic and members listened as Mr Society, a Past President and a very enthusiastic photographer. Barrell talked about the many aspects of the oldest part of the He enjoyed facilities enabling town. He illustrated his talk him to obtain special knowledge of the Cathedral and with some really superb lantern plates. lt was obvious that great its surrounds, which coupled care had been taken with the with some delightful lantern lighting. All was dealt with plates and his delivery made in Mr Barrells very droll and for a very interesting evening amusing manner. Mr Lawton indeed. in thanking him, said that Mr Barrell must have dashed out th from his printing works when April 24 1908 The Secretary talked to members about the latest weapon in the photographers armoury, vis, “Ozobrome”, Carbon printing without light.

Mr Lawton claimed that the process enabled the busy man whose leisure hours in daylight were limited, to produce carbon prints, any size or colour whenever he wished so to do. ... dashed out when the light was correct

December 4 1908 “Landscape Photography” by th

the light was correct for a

Colour Photography

PHOTOGRAPHIC LECTURE

On Wednesday evening, Mr Frank Miall, gave a most interesting demonstration of the Lumiere process of colour photography, before the members of Southsea Photographic Society, at their headquarters, 5 Pembroke Road, Portsmouth, the President, Mr HT Lilley MA, being in the chair.

The process is claimed to be not only the simplest and most practicable, but by far the most inexpensive. Three separate negatives are taken on orthochromatic plates through coloured screens. Positives are made on a specially prepared tissue, and the prints are developed by use of hot water. When dry they are stained by immersion in dye baths, and, being again dried, are placed in superposition. The blending of the films gives a result which is a reproduction in transparency as near as possible in natural colours of the object photographed. The colours are “red-orange”, “green” and “blue-violet”.

Some fifty finished transparencies were shown on a screen by the lecturer, who, at the conclusion, was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.

Exhaustive, instructive and thorough were the methods of Colonel Johnstone CB., who lectured on “Bromide Toning” before an appreciative gathering of the members of the Southsea Photographic Society on Wednesday evening.

As most amateur photographers are aware, the bromide process as ordinarily practised gives only black tones, which do not always accord with the aspirations of the pictorial worker.

It has been found that of the many chemical methods of changing this black tone those which induce a sepia are most satisfactory. The lecturer has made the “sulphide” method of sepia toning his special study, and not only did he demonstrate the formulae in general use, but showed others which he had discovered for himself by experiment, the results of which were very fine indeed.

The lecture had a special significance and usefulness by reason of the fact that the members of the society are hard at work preparing for their annual exhibition next month. This promises to be of very high quality indeed as most of the leading pictorial photographers of the day are sending pictures. A very hearty vote of thanks was accorded to Colonel Johnstone.

From the Portsmouth Evening News, dated February 26th 1903

From the Portsmouth Evening News, dated November 18th 1905 Southsea Photographic Society A special general meeting of the members was held on Monday for the purpose of considering scheme of reorganisation submitted by a large section of the members.

There was a very strong attendance, and the scheme, as submitted, with a few minor alterations, was carried unanimously. It was proposed by Colonel Johnstone CB, seconded by WFJ Lawton, and supported by Mr WH Barrell and Mr

S Dawe. The name of the Society will be changed to that of the Portsmouth Camera Club, with a reduced annual subscription. The meetings will be held in the same room as before, No.5, Pembroke Road, Portsmouth, and all the photographic apparatus, pictures, furniture and effects will become automatically the property of the reorganised Society.

Taken from the Portsmouth Evening News, dated October 30th 1907.

Portsmouth Camera Club The renaiscence of the old Southsea Photographic Society as the Portsmouth Camera Club was firmly established at the annual general meeting of the members, held at 5 Pembroke Road. Mr A Debenham occupied the chair, and the business dealt with included most satisfactory Secretary’s and Treasurer’s reports ably presented by Mr Gilbert Wood, the retiring Hon. Sec. The officers elected for the ensuing year are: President, Colonel Johnstone CB.; Vice President, Mr WH Barrel]; Hon. Treasurer, Mr J Cromwell-Prior; Hon.Secretary, Mr FJ Lawton (Gosport); Assistant Hon.Sec., Mr WH Dugan; Committee, Messrs.

AB Casey, S Dawe and JC Thompson.

With a greatly reduced and now merely nominal subscription, the officers of the club are confident of attracting a much larger membership; and as the organisation is the only one of its kind in the district, local camera workers will find its utility unquestionable under the present regime.

A revised winter programme is in process of preparation.

Great expense has been incurred in bringing the club rooms up to date, and in this respect comparison can be favourably sustained with any other photographic society in the Kingdom with a similar subscription.

Taken from the Portsmouth Evening News, dated January 17th 1908.

Photographic Fellowship Mr S Dawe, the well known amateur photographer and President of the Portsmouth Camera Club, has been elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain.

The only previous record the club has of the election of a townsman to the Fellowship is that of Mr FJ Mortimer (an old Portmuthian), now editor of the “Amateur Photographer and Photographic News”, who left Portsmouth in 1903 and was elected to a Fellowship in l905. Mr Dawe is also President of the Southern Photographic Federation, which comprises all the leading photographic societies of the Southern Counties.

For 18 years he has has been the local Superintendant for the Prudential Asurance Company, and since 1912 a prominent member of the Portsmouth Insurance Committee, representing the town on the Executive Council of the National Association of Insurance Committees.

For family reasons Mr dawe is shortly leaving Portsmouth to take up residence at Exeter.

His impending departure was announced at a meeting of the Finance Sub-Committee of the Insurance Committee at the Town Hall on Tuesday evening, and regret was expressed at the severance of so many pleasant and useful associations in connection with the work of the Committee and the life of the town.

Taken from the Portsmouth Evening News, dated December 12th 1915.

particular subject.

1909 January 12 1909 At the AGM, the members expressed themselves well pleased with the reorganisation last year, despite doubts, after paying all expenses, not withstanding the reduced “subs”, the club had a small surplus in the ‘kitty’.

Elected to Office for the ensuing year were; President: Mr WH Barrell, Vice President: Mr AB Casey, Treasurer: WH Dugan, the working committee was Messrs. S Dawe, FJ Lawton and JC Prior. th

the cameras from being used to great effect.

Members strolled around taking photographs for about an hour, before eventually, retiring to a local tavern for a supper and a couple or

... a couple of drinks to keep out the wet!

April 14 1909 Mr A Debenham with a talk on the hand camera and its work.

Mr Debenham dealt very lucidly with the many varieties of hand cameras that were available to the amateur photographer, pointing out the various advantages towards one and t’other. This was followed by a showing of lantern plates covering the subjects that could be taken with a hand camera.

A special mention was made of stereo, linked to the new autochrome process, which was reckoned to be the best yet.

drinks to keep out the wet. Of the 25 members present, all agreed that the summer had been most enjoyable and well worthwhile.

October 6th 1909 This was the opening day of the 22nd Annual Exhibition.

There were 600 photographs hung out of over 2000 entered from all over the country, with one or two from abroad. The Exhibition was opened by the Lady Mayor J Baggs, at the Bijou Theatre on South Parade Pier, Southsea.

According to the judge this was one of the finest showings of photographs seen outside London, and should be justly proud.

September 9th 1909 The last of the summer outings was led by Mr L Tanner, to Horndean Woods.

The woods at this time of the year are delightful, although on this particular occasion, it rained! That still did not stop

October 22nd 1909 One of the clubs leading pictorialists and darkroom workers, S Dawe, talked on the enlarged negative. He combined three negatives to demonstrate how easy it was, one was for the foreground,

th

the second for the middle and the third for the sky.

He demonstrated the way to go about it, using the three negatives of, foreground Hayling Island, middle from Skye and the sky from Scotland. After the enlarged negative had been made and retouched it was copied down to the workers usual size.

The President in thanking Mr Dawe, said that it had been an eyeopener as to what could be obtained by care and experience.

1910 February 12th 1910 At the AGM, the Secretary reported that we had had an excellent year with the outings in the summer being well attended. The October Exhibition had been very successful with over 2000 entries being received.

The Treasurer told the club that there was a small adverse balance this year owing to special expenditure, but that it had been covered by donations.

This year Officers are, President: AB Casey, Vice Presidents: Messrss WH Barrell, FJ Mortimor and CR Porter, Secretary/Treasurer: JC Thompson, Asst. Secretary: WE Tanner, Lanternist: R Fleming, committee: Messrss WH Barrell, J CromwellHrior, S Dawe, LW Hewett and RAL Ready. The Exhibition Secretary was FJ Mortimor.

March 9th 1910 A packed club room assembled to hear Mr CH Livesly from the Osborne College,

lecture on the “New Colour Photography”. He explained fully the distinctive character of the various processes on the market at present, dealing very fully with the question of exposure, which unlike “Black and White” photography was of a very precise nature, correct exposure was essential if good results were to be obtained.

He showed 80 plates through the lantern covering all the processes currently available, all of excellent quality showing quite clearly the strides that colour photography had made in a relatively short time.

October 28th 1910 By popular demand, S Dawe was asked to give a more detailed demonstration on ‘making a combination negative’.

He took 4 negatives and using bits from each made transparencies. Then, with considerable skill and ingenuity combined them producing a landscape of considerable merit. It showed the skill possessed by Mr Dawe, that he could produce the transparency so easily in one evening, explaining each step as he went along. The club members were indeed grateful that they such advanced members in the its ranks.

December 17th 1910 Mr A J Fellows of the Eastbourne Club with “A tour of the Western Counties”.

He showed an excellent set of lantern plates, all of very fine quality, covering all aspects of life and landscape. Mr

Fellows had a very thorough knowledge of the locality and was full of little “folk lore” stories which made the evening very interesting.

This years Annual Exhibition was at the Esplanade Assembly Rooms, where nearly 500 exhibits were on display.

February 2nd 1911 The Treasurer told members at the AGM, that it had been a most satisfactory year, with the deficit of lastyear being wiped out and finishing with a small surplus this year.

Officers of the club will be, President: ET Hall, Vice President: Dr B Stone, Secretary/Treasurer: JC Thompson, Asst Secretary: WE Tanner, Committee: Messrs.

Barrell, Casey, Dawe, Fleming, Heady and Colonel Johnstone.

February 16th 1911 A novelty evening where 6 volunteers taking part were each given a print and told to exercise their discretion on how it should be mounted. A very lively discussion ensued led by S Dawe, ending with Mr Heady winning the prize for the best effort.

February 20th 1911 Photographic success of a club member.

Mr LJ Steele won first prize of £15 in a “Holidays with a Camera” competition organised by the Amateur Photographer and Photographic News.

October 9th 1911 Dr Stone on “Natural

... he used a bottle that made them sleepy

History”.

Dr Stone has become well known in the area for his pictures of insects and he gave a very interesting talk to the club on how he went about it. Around the walls were a number of Dr Stones prints plus some excellent lantern plates. When asked how he got some of them to keep still, he said that he used a bottle that made them sleepy, but he wouldn’t tell members what was in it!

December 6th 1911 “Pictorial Photography” an illustrated talk by Mr S Dawe.

With Mr R Fleming working the lantern, Mr Dawe showed about 100 really superb lantern plates, it was in his opinion, as he had mentioned on a number of previous occasions that to be successful one had to become proficient in combination printing, but, with all the playing about in the world wouldn’t turn a

F J Mortimor, who with his father was a very strong member of the Club in its early days

Mr WH Barrell who died in 1922.

failure into a success. Great care was required to get the basic plate correct at the start, then start to improve it by adding or subtracting bits.

1912 January 17 1912 At the A.G.M. the Treasurer reported that the club was in a healthy state financially, but he asked the club to exercise caution as it was the Silver Jubilee of the club this year.

Elected to Office: President: Dr Bertram Stone, Vice Presidents: WF Hunt, FJ Mortimor, CH Porter and S Dawe, Secretary/Treasurer: JC Thompson, Asst. Secretary: RAL Ready. Lanternist: R Fleming. Committee: Mrs Dawe, Messrs. AB Casey, ET Hall, FS Hoyte and EJ Mowlam.

The Silver Exhibition will be held in the Esplanade Assembly Rooms from October 23rd to 30th. It was also agreed that a special appeal should be made to many of the camera artists from all over the country to support the Exhibition. Mayor Scott-Foster, a member will officiate at the opening. th

June 1912 To digress briefly, the first Colour Cine Film taken and shown in Portsmouth was at the Apollo Cinema in Albert Road Southsea, of the Royal Marines marching to the Garrison Church for a service and presentation of medals.

November 7th 1912 A Practical demonstration by Mr Bell of Birmingham. The

evening was in two halves, first to explain and show how to use the various “tools”, knives, brushes, pencils and the medium to use.

During the second half members were invited to try their hand. Mr Bell had brought plenty of tools with him and members had been invited to bring prints and plates with them. It turned out to be quite a hilarious occasion as members tried to emulate Mr Bells expertise.

December 12th 1912 A very pleasant evening under the guidance of S Dawe assisted by R Fleming.

“Picturesque Devonshire’, a travelling set lent by the Royal Photographic Society, and a very line set they proved to be. The talk was made more interesting by the remarks of S Dawe who had lived there for a number of years and had an intimate knowledge of the county.

1913 January 10 1913 The only infommtion that I have found about Club Officers for this season was that of the President: Dr Bertram Stone and the Secretary: JC Thompson.

habits of the people, read by Messrs. Debenham and S Mowlam.

January 24th 1913 Dr Bertram Stone demonstrated the Bromoil process. He explained the various brushes and the operations that they did, he stressed that the author had complete control over the process.

After the interval members were given the opportunity to try their hand at it.

March 6th 1913 “Colour Photography” by LC Keating from Gosport.

After fully explaining the process that he was about to use, he proceeded to develop some previously exposed plates, several members accepting his invitation to do the same. In Mr Keating’s opinion it was easier to produce a beautiful colour print than a black and white one.

th

A packed club room of members and friends attended to watch a lantern slide talk lent by the Royal Photographic Society, entitled the “People and Temples of Java”. The show consisted of well over 100 plates of immense interest, which were complimented by the graphic accounts of earthquakes, temples and

March 13th 1913 An Annual Whist drive was held at the Clubs headquarters in Elm Grove to try and recuperate from the losses sustained in the Jubilee Year.

The prizes were framed pictures donated by members, which were presented by Miss Dawe.

March 20th 1913 “Home Portraiture” by Lieutenant S Mowlam RN. Mr Mowlam is well known in the club for his skill in this branch of photography. He

ART OF THE CAMERA PORTSMOUTHS CLUB’S EXHIBITION That section of Portsmouth’s community who have so persistently advocated the establishment of an Art Gallery in the borough will find satisfaction in the development in artistic temperament which has been so carefully fostered by the Portsmouth Camera Club.

On Wednesday afternoon at the Esplanade Assembly Rooms, Southsea, the Lord Mayor (Sir Scott Foster) performed the opening ceremony of the Society’s twenty fifth annual exhibition, in which there is marked evidence of the splendid work the Society has accomplished in the encouragement of this the interesting branch of art. Portsmouth, from the earliest days of the Society’s foundation, has held its own in comparison with any town of its size, expert workers sending studies from all parts of the country for competition. In the ‘silver’ anniversary exhibition the most pleasing feature is the high standard of local work.

Numerically the display is much the same as last year, but the quality of the exhibits in the various clames points to much deeper interest on the part of the exhibitors, while the successes scored by members in open competition are distinctly creditable to the organisation.

Unfortunately, rain fell at the time of the opening, and the attendance was not nearly as large as the merit of the exhibition deserved, yet inasmuch as the pictorial collection will be on view until Wednesday next there will be ample opportunity for a visit later.

Dr Bertram Stone, the President, welcomed the Lord Mayor, remarking that they were

glad to see him, not only as Mayor, but because he was a member of the Society.

His Worship expressed the hope that the exhibition would be successful financially as it undoubtedly was artistically, and remarked that after the expiration of his term of office he hoped to have time to himself to attend Club meetings.

Having declared the exhibition open, the Mayor was thanked, on the motion of Mr S Dawe [Vice President), seconded by Mr J C Thompson (Hon. Secretary and Treasurer), who said that the judge (Mr A ll Blake M.A.l had warmly commended the collection. The Secretary added that the Club only made one appeal to the public a year, and that was to spend sixpence (2½p) on a ticket for the exhibition. The greater the public appreciation, the greater would be the incentive to bers to improve their work.

Lantern displays will be given each day at frequent intervals, and musical programmes will be rendered each evening from 7 o’clock to 9.30. The ‘Prestonville’ string band, who kindly gave their services, played during the afternoon.

THE AWARDS. Of the special awards EngineerLieut. E J Mowlam, R.N., gained that for the best six pictures in the members‘ classes, and Staff- Surgeon W K Hopkins gained the honour for - the best picture in the same classes. For the best four pictures in Class ‘M’ Mrs Dawe took the prize, while Mr T P Holland was awarded Colonel Curran’s prize for the best portrait. The special award presented by Mr FS Hoyte for the best lantern slide went to Mr R Fleming.

Mr E F H Crouch (Worthing) with a splendid view of the Portsmouth Town Hall, and Mr R J Delf (Norwich), were the prize winners in the open class for framed prints.

Mr J C Thompson scored well in class ‘B” (Open), taking one of the prizes with a fine seascape.

Mr R A L Ready, another local member, was also successful. A beautiful collection of colour work transparencies were on view, the first prize by Mrs Shaw (London) being valued at ten guineas (10.50p). The lantern slides in colour and monochrome were beautifully executed, while the postcards in the open classes were also good. In the latter, C E Fowler, a local worker, scored.

Dr Bertram Stone got a deserved award in the semi-open class embracing Hampshire, Susex and the Isle of Wight.

In the members’ classes the chief successes were :Portraiture and figure studies: Mr T P Holland and EngineerLieut. Mowlam RN. Landscape, river and marine subjects: Dr Stone and Engineer- l.ieut Mowlam R.N. Architecture: Mr R Fleming. Any other subject: Mr G E Headey. Any subject for novices: Mr R C Pearson, Mr W Staley and Mrs Dawe. Lantern slides: Mr J C Thompson and Mr R Fleming. The prizes will be presented on Wednesday night.

From the Portsmouth Evening News, dated October 24th 1912

illustrated how he obtained his effects with lantern plates. It was obvious from the barrage of questions that he had aroused a lot of interest.

several plates that were taken by another photographer. It was quite obvious from the scenes depicted that Mr Holt was indeed very fortunate to escape injury.

1914 th January 9 1914 The Treasurer told members at the Annual General Meeting, that the Whist Drive had been very successful, but the funds were still depleted. Several very interesting schemes were put forward for the committee to consider to remedy the matter.

Officers elected: President: S Dawe, Vice President: A Debenham, Secretary: JC Thompson, Assistant Secretary: Mr Harfield and Lanternist: C Worsford.

March 5th 1914 One of the many practical evenings, with Mr A Dawe speaking on the “Treatment of under and over exposed plates”. After talking about the various ways in which this could be achieved, he went on to treat plates brought in by members.

January 18th 1914 Mr Holt talked about a tour of Southern Europe illustrated by a lot of fine lantern plates.

He explained that he sent the exposed plates home for his brother to process, and on occasions picked up a fresh supply sent out to him. During the tour he had had quite a number of hair raising experiences, luckily without injury. He showed

... fortunate to escape injury!

March 12th 1914 “Gruyere Cheese and Chamoix Honey” was the title of a very humorous account of a tour of Switzerland, supported with a series of excellent lantern plates. The Club room being packed with members and friends for the occasion. Mr ET Hall, a member is well known amongst members of the Club for his photographic expertise and humorous manner.

April 17th 1914 Mr Keating of Gosport on “Orthochromatic photography”.

He explained in very clear simple terms the difference between Ordinary and Orthochromatic plates, showing the immense difference by lantern plates when used to photograph coloured objects.

December 4th 1914 Lieutenant Mowlam RN. on “Home Portraiture”.

The Lieutenant is well known

around the local clubs for his skill in this branch of photography. He illustrates his talks with prints and lantern plates, explaining how and why he had taken them as they were displayed.

December 18th 1914 Mr A Dawe on “Printing in Clouds”.

This was a very interesting talk on how to print in clouds.

Mr Dawe demonstrated the way to go about it. He stressed how easy it was provided, care was taken to observe certain “rules”. One thing that was extremely important was to get the “light right”.

Nothing looked worse than if the directions of light clashed when printed together.

1915 Although the Great War was upon us, the Club still carried on, and there are a couple of noteworthy items.

The first, our President Mr S Dawe, had been elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society. He was only the second Club member to have achieved this distinction, the other being FJ Mortimor in 1905.

Although FJ Mortimor had left Portsmouth in 1903, he was still a member of the Club, helping out whenever and wherever he could. He was currently the editor of “Amateur Photographer and Photographic News”. He also achieved world wide fame as a marine photographer. (more information on FJ Mortimor at the end of the history – Trevor) The second item was the formation of the Southern Photographic Federation,

which comprises all the leading photographic societies of the Southem counties. Mr Dawe, the Club President, was elected as the first President of the Federation.

Cecil C Davies joined the Club this year, and it is mainly thanks to him that many of the old bits and pieces were kept. Apart from the enomous amount of information the Club owes Cecil a very big debt.

A very pleasant evening was spent in the Clubroom, with a circulating folio, from the newly formed Southem Federation. The folio contained photographs from nearly all the member clubs, with the quality being extremely high, one or two examples were quite exceptional.

A packed house listened to Mr E Baker of Southampton Camera Club talk on the ‘Brunei! Process’. He gave a very clear and precise talk on the materials, inks and tools (brushes) required. Mr Baker explained about ‘the “inking up’ of a previously prepared print. This particular evening was held under the auspices of the newly formed Southern Federation.

1916 The Club closed down this year because of the Great War. Regular meetings were suspended and were not resumed until hostilities ceased. However, according to Cecil Davies, informal

meetings were held, there

... only the second member of the fair sex ....

being no shortage of visitors, both Army and Navy personell. There appeared at times to be a constant stream of visitors, and some very interesting ‘al fresco’ evenings ensued.

1919 Cecil Davies was asked to take over the post of Secretary and to get the Club back into full swing again at the earliest opportunity. After a lot of very hard work this was accomplished and the first ‘post war’ syllabus was produced in 1920.

A Miss Campion (of the bakery family) was elected to the council. She was only the second member of the fair sex to take her place on the council, the first being Mrs Dawe.

1920 A lot of the pre-war members had “signed on” again; to name but a few, there was Miss Campion, Messrs. Debenham, Hewitt, Mowlam, Dyer, Steele and Bertram Stone all back and full of enthusiasm.

I quote some interesting notes

from the instructions for the competitions, ‘will be held on the dates shown. Standard size mounts 12” by 10”, 15” by 12½”, 20” by 16½” and 25” by 20”. Entrance fee 2/6d (12½p). Subscription due January 1st.....10/6d (52½p): Key to Clubroom 2/6d deposit, lockers per annum 2/6d.

Evening talks included Carbon Printing, 50 years on Photography and one evening which intrigued the researcher (Bill), Oil Prints by Dr Bertram Stone (I am not sure what they were but they could have been Bromails).

October 8th 1920 The opening meeting of the Club in the headquarters at 52 Elm Grove. A packed Clubroom listened to the President CS Hopkins over the difficulties that had had to be overcome due to the war and its effects. The President proposed a very sincere vote of thanks to the Secretary Cecil Davies, who had tirelessly worked to achieve this evening.

He was delighted to see so many Pre-war stalwarts back in harness and had great hopes for the future.

The evening concluded with Commander Mowlam giving a talk on how to improve a picture. He showed examples of ‘before and after’, explaining the methods employed to obtain the improvement.

November 5th 1920 The first monthly print competition winners were:R Parker, Cecil Davies, F Harfield, GH Payne and JL Dyer.

Syllabus for 1920/21

An outing to Portchester Castle taken in the 1920s, unfortunately no names are available.

Part of the 1932 Exhibition held at the Castle Tea Rooms, Southsea.

November 19 1920 Cecil Davies “Lenses and their Manufacture”.

Cecil told members that 1000’s of lenses were used, but that users didn’t appreciate the complicated mathematics necessary to produce them.

He then showed some plates on the lantern, of the various ‘samples of the faults’. These had been supplied with the compliments of Dallmeyer Limited. th

1921 January 19 1921 “Break the ice evening”.

This was a very lively evening indeed. Anybody with something to say on the subject of photography could get up and have ten minutes to get it off their chest. I am sure there was then, as there is now, the odd person who would deliberately talk on something controversial, just to get a reaction from the audience.

Several members had the chance to put their views forward, although a lot of time was spent trying to keep the members in order, instead of lynching the speaker.

judging by the quantity of questions asked.

May 12th 1921 Gordon Pyke gave a lantern lecture on “Photography, its present day power and importance”.

This was a wonderful resume of the multivarious applications of photography. In addition to the usual pictorial and architectural views, he showed a wonderful collection of press, x-ray, astronomical and aerial plates.

th

February 24th 1921 Eng. Com. Mowlam with “Photographic Dodges”.

Mr Mowlam was one of the Clubs finest workers, constantly coming up with new ideas. On this particular evening he talked about various ways to improve a print. To prove his point he showed many examples of ‘before and after’ prints, on which he had worked. Much interest had been amused,

October 16th 1921 A full Club room to see the prize winning “Amateur Photographer” Lantern Plate competition. The 120 plates covered a very wide range of subjects and included some very fine colour plates.

December 1st 1921 Jasper Thompson with his talk on “Photographic Oddities”.

Jasper showed a number of DIY articles that his inventive mind had conjured up, one that must be mentioned is, making a simple safe light suited for both exposure and development.

First take a CIGAR BOX, fit a small light inside, cut a small hole at one end and cover it with red or yellow material. It was just as well that Jasper was a very mercurial character, as it would appear from the many questions and suggestions from members, some were aimed at “getting him going”.

1922

During 1922 the Club had to vacate the headquarters at 52 Elm Grove due to the rebuilding of the premises.

Accommodation was eventually found at the Royal Sailors Rest in Commercial Road. A number of new members joined this year, who were to prove excellent members, namely P Walters, TW Manby and Captain Germain.

February 12th 1922 A talk on the “Pyrenees” by Mr OM Dell.

Mr Dell is famous worldwide for his photography and the Club was very fortunate indeed to be able to obtain a visit from him. Members were very impressed with the quality of the lantern plates which coupled with Dell’s delightful wit, made it one of the finest evenings the Club had had.

February 26th 1922 This seems laughable these days, “The Hand Camera”

by Messrs. Houghton Ltd. Around this time we are talking about a miniature camera, “a Quarter Plate”, that is 4¼” by 3¼” , nowadays that’s a BIG camera.

... oiling of prints with strange concoctions!

April 11 1922 Dr Bertram Stone gave a talk that completely mystified me called “The Oil Print”.

Oiling of prints with various concoctions, usually secret ones, was regular thing amongst photographers.

Bromoil prints yes, but Oil prints, this is one I have never heard of. th

October 7th 1922 Dr Bertram Stone with “Country Rambles with a Reflex Camera”.

Dr Stone, who is a very enthusiastic natural history photographer, showed a superb set of lantern plates.

All of the plates were in colour and were of Plant, Bird and lnsect Life.

1923 This is report from the Portsmouth Evening News in January 1923.

The Annual General meeting took place in the new Club headquarters, The Mikado Buildings, Elm Grove, Southsea. There was a large attendance of members, and from the keen interest evinced in the business of the evening, all bodes well for the success of the Club in the immediate future. The Club is entering a new epoch in its history, the aim of the officers and committee being that it shall be not only one of the oldest, but the premier Club outside the metropolis.

The Club possesses splendid accommodation, including a darkroom, fitted with the latest appliances, library, reading and

lecture rooms, and in the near future a well equipped studio will be the next consideration.

The usual formalities took place before the election of Officers, who were as follows: President: Dr Bertram Stone, Vice Presidents: Messrs.

LJ Hewett, JC Thompson, Commander EJ Mowlam RN and Dr Elliott, Secretary: Mr C Davies, Assistant Secretary: Captain Germain, Treasurer: Mr LJ Hewett; Committee: Messrs. Davey, Harvey, Llewellyn, Manby, Smith, Walters, Wilcox, Mrs Davies and Misses Campion and Williams; Librarian: Mr Wilcox; Lanternists: Messrs.

Davey and Manby.

January 9th I923 “Modern negative making” by WF Slater FRPS. FRGS A comprehensive lecture was given on this subject by one of the best workers at the time.

Negatives were worked on very extensively in these days, and to have seen to what lengths a master got would have gone to produce their masterpieces, would have been marvellous.

The talk must have been very fascinating.

January 24th 1923 Cecil Davies. the Secretary, had managed to acquire three types of the new apparatus, ‘Vertical Enlargers’, which he had demonstrated to a packed attendance. He had made a thorough investigation into them and was in no doubt that the practical use of them was accountable for the large attendances of late. The majority of members were obviously impressed, in spite

of the ‘old die hards remarks about the ‘new fangled toys’.

Another milestone in the Clubs history was that, Mr LG Steele a Club member had acquired the only public exhibition of the works of the late Lord Caernarvon, a privilege refused even to the Royal Photographic Society.

This wonderful collection of portraits, Figure Studies and Egyptian records would easily hold its own with any work being produced today.

Also during March, the Secretary had managed to obtain the 1922 Amateur Photographer prize competition prints. They would be on display for a fortnight in the Club room.

April 10th 1923 “Chromatics” by Willy Kay from Southampton Camera Club.

Willy was one of the greats in photography, known internationally. he was a tremendous character with a very dry sense of wit and a razor sharp mind, indeed a very lovely man.

May 22nd 1923 Jasper Thompson pops up again, who, according to Cecil Davies was at times a very awkward member. On occasions he would be very difficult, and coupled with a low flashpoint, some members took a delight in baiting him.

This talk was on the Carbon print and according to Cecil, it was a very lively evening, no one went to sleep when Jasper was about!

1924 On the occasion of this years AGM, something very strange indeed occurred. It was the election of TWO assistant secretaries to assist the Secretary, one to the Northern Division and the other to the Southern Division. I must say that I find this rather peculiar, what on earth could have justified such positions are beyond me.

A talk on “Bromoil and Bromoil Transfer” by CJ Symes from Liverpool.

A capacity filled room assembled to listen to one of the country’s leading exponents of the process.

As the evening progressed, many questions were asked about this very popular process. He finished the evening by showing a selection of his work, most of which had been exhibited all over the world.

“Nature Photography” by Captain HC Fowler.

According to the report, the Captain showed some superb lantern plates. He explained that nature photography had changed greatly from the old days, when a stuffed bird or animal was placed in position outside and photographed. lt was his opinion that one of the reasons for this habit of stuffing birds and animals, was for the ease of taking the said photographs.

An extremely interesting talk

by Mr H W Watson MSc ARCS head of the Chemistry

department of the Municipal College.

He managed in the short time available, by roping in one or two members to assist him, to turn the Club room into a veritable chemistry laboratory. The highlight of the evening was an ocular demonstration on what went on in the emulsion when it was developed, to most of the members it was an eye opener.

Member A Debenham talked about “The Electric Spotlight and Flash Photography in the home”.

With nearly fifty years as a professional adding substance to his remarks, he told members that the modern systems were far in advance of the somewhat primitive methods used when he started.

When he first started as a boy, he often had to assist the boss with flash. He recalled standing outside outside in the dark holding a contraption with three clay pipes, fixed to a triple connector, which was in turn joined to a mouthpiece.

The pipes were stuffed with flash powder and carefully measured fuse papers were fitted to each pipe, they were then lit and when the flash powder ignited he had to blow, thereby sending the burning powder over the scene. Mr Debenham said that although it sounded very crude, in practice, it worked very well.

1925 Member EJ Mowlam has been promoted to Engineer Captain, after starting in the Club as an Ensign Engineer.

At his first meeting at the Club after his promotion to

... required all members to rise to attention!

Captain, Cecil Davies called all the members to attention as he arrived and the President saluted him. There is no truth in the report that he required all members to rise to attention when he entered the club room!

Reading through the general information in the programme, it is apparent that the Club was very well equipped to deal with the photographic processes. The very extensive list included the following items:A fully equipped studio, with lights, backgrounds and a camera, all being available for use daily. The studio book had to be signed before using any of the equipment, together with times of arrival and departure. A charge of 6d (2½p) an hour was levied to cover costs. The camera was a whole plate 8½” by 6½” , mounted no doubt, on a monster studio stand.

The darkroom contained two ½ plate enlargers 4½” by 6½” , lit by ELECTRIC LIGHT. There was a lavish stock of dishes and all the essential bits and pieces required in photography.

Competitions were held monthly. Here are a few words about them that you may find interesting.

A board of four senior members were appointed as judges. Prints and Slides were to be judged on the same night, one per member in each section. No names or signatures allowed on the entries. Maximum size of print mounts 25” by 20”, with no frames allowed.

The average popular vote by members, plus the vote of the board judge for the evening, would be the marks awarded, maximum 10 points.

The judge would then comment on the entries and the results given out at the next competition evening. I must confess that it sounds a bit complicated to me.

“Lecturette’”evening.

Vice President L Hewett, was ‘IN CHARGE’. Among those taking part were Commander Townsend on ‘Spots and how to avoid them’, and Mr H Brammer on ‘Mounting’, the virtues of dry and wet mounting. According to the report, this sparked off an extremely lively discussion, during which the die hards on the two methods argued on the virtues of their particular method. It went on so long that the last “Lecturette” was cancelled.

Engineer Captain EJ Mowlam on “Making of an Exhibition Print”.

The Captain is one of the most experienced Club members,

having exhibited successfully all over the country. He gave a very informative talk, with many very useful tips being ‘handed out’. There were three main points to his talk required for the production of a good print, a good negative, absolute cleanliness and most of all, if you must fiddle about, adding and subtracting things, they must be undetectable.

1926 What is missing today are the colourful characters that were about prior to the war.

Everybody seems so serious these days, although on reflection, there are one or two that would probably qualify.

This year there were three outstanding characters.

First was Dudley Johnson FRPS. Dudley visited the Club and talked about a “Winter Holiday in Switzerland”.

According to Cecil Davies, any session with him was, apart from the superb slides, full of jokes and episodes that occurred during the holiday.

Marcus Adams was the second. Marcus was famous for his particular style in “Child Photography”. He had very decided views on his subject and was not afraid to express them. He dealt very thoroughly with the subject, stressing that a soft focus lens was a must for child photography, and anyone that said otherwise was wrong. in order to emphasize the three main points that he considered essential in taking a child portrait, Marcus had presented a prize for the best picture embodying the three essentials ….. LIGHT,

LIFE and LOVE. The monthly competition on April 19th was to be devoted to this project. The entries will be judged by Marcus Adams, and it was hoped that every member would enter at least a print or lantern plate.

The third was Willy Kay from Southampton Camera Club on “Chromatics”.

Willy was an extremely forceful character. I met him on a number of occasions, being very fortunate to share a meal with him once. In spite of his great experience in photography he was always willing to listen with great patience to the beginner offering advice. One of the charms of Willy, was that should someone ask a question, he would sidetrack his theme, then switch back to it again, all in a flamboyant manner. THEY DON’T MAKE ‘EM LIKE THAT THESE DAYS. “The development of the latent image” by RJ Remes of Ilford Ltd. Mr Remes was a research Chemist with llfords apart from being a very enthusiastic photographer.

This talk was about producing the best from a negative.

Mr Remes had come to Portsmouth early and wandered about, not true actually, he was met by a senior member who escorted him around.

He had deliberately given plates different exposures of a subject and after a talk about the ‘Brews’ to be used, proceeded to process the under, correctly and

overexposed plates, showing how by using different techniques, good negatives could be produced. He did stress though, that for the best results, a correctly exposed negative was best.

Looking through the 1926-27 programme I noticed that the Club held nine print and slide competitions in the season. It seems rather a lot for members to cope with, especially when it is hard to find enough for five these days.

1927

September 11th 1927 “Do you know Britain” by H Felton FRPS. This was an evening held in the form of a competition. lt had been sponsored by the Lens firm Houghton-Botcher Limited, who were advertising their lenses. The competition took the form of guessing the location of the displayed photographs. Much hilarity was created assisted by Harry Feltons delightfully breezy manner.

Continuing the innovation from two years previous, regarding the judging of prints, a Board of judges were again appointed and they would deal with all the judging required during the coming season.

The judges were LJ Steele, GH Downing, J Hawkins. JC Thompson and CC Davies.

Rule 3 is I think interesting.

“Prints must be mounted on standard size mounts, NO PRINT TO BE FRAMED”. An amendment to the competition rules “to be eligible for one of the seasons awards, a member must enter at least four rounds, if more, then the top four would count”.

Affiliated Club competitions.

The Club hoped to enter these competitions, and members were asked to submit as many prints and lantem plates as they wished. The Club President told members that he hoped there would be tremendous support for this very worthy venture.

One already upon us was the Hampshire Lantern Plate collection. Each club was asked to enter a set of 20 Lantern Plates, the top five being circulated as the “Hampshire Collection”.

September 18th 1927 A “Bohemian Evening” was arranged by Jasper Thompson.

Unfortunately there is no information as to what they got up to. What on earth did they get up to during this evening? If you have any ideas, please let the club secretary know.

1928 This year saw the inauguration of the Clubs first Lady President. Over the years, there have been a number of active lady members. The first of these was a Mrs Dawe, who served diligently on the committee some years ago.

Another Lady member was a Miss Campion. She was a fervent pictorial worker, who produced some very nice prints over the years.

This year also saw a Christmas Party organised by the ladies, this was probably the first such party, although many years previous it was noted that members used to hold smoking evenings, no doubt with the odd glass or two of Port, to whet their whistles!!!

A circulating portfolio, organised by Miss Bilson. was doing the rounds. This system of showing and getting comments about members work has been going on for many years, with great success.

A talk by the President, Miss Shepherd entitled “Towards Pictorialism”, turned out to be a very lively affair. Miss Shepherd had very decided views, on what in her opinion, constitutes a good pictorial print. It was useless just pointing a camera, taking a photograph and then printing it.

Thought was required both before and after the negative stage, plus very careful printing. Her talk was laced with advice at various stages throughout the proceedings.

A feature of her talk was what she called “before and after” prints that illustrated the items that she had been discussing.

1929 Mr JC Thompson, was made President this year. The opening meeting of the season was an excellent showing of “The Wonderland of Photography” produced by the

Kodak Fellowship.

From the remarks made by members at the time it would appear that the talk was indeed a “wonderland”.

During the same season a session was given by Leitz. The talk was about the emerging

... just a toy!

Leica camera. Some of the cameras were shown to the audience, with an offer to sell them at special prices at the end of the evening. Three members bought cameras. although some of the die hard members, referred to them as ‘toys’.

One must remember that it was only a few years ago that the same die hards referred to the quarter plate camera (3¼ by 4¼) as miniature cameras.

It is certainly different today where the 2¼ square is referred to as large format camera!

A superb talk about “Alsace”

by Ray Bruton from Southampton Camera Club.

According to reports it was an outstanding evening, consisting of some excellent lantern plates coupled with Ray’s knowledge of the area.

(Buck Taylor note: As a young photographer I came to know

Ray really well, he had the ability of making you feel at home with him. By the time I came to know him, he had gone over to colour slides.

These were some of the finest slides that l have ever seen, then or since.)

The fully equiped darkroom was blessed with two (2) half plate enlargers. for the use of members.

The start of a long standing tradition first took place during the year.

The competition between Southampton and Portsmouth Camera Clubs. The winning prints were entered by Messrs.

Kay, Williams, Bruton and Chambers of Portsmouth camera club. These lnterclub competitions always lively affairs, with many ribald comments amongst members.

1930 The President again this year was Mr JC Thompson.

The opening session this year was entitled “Hadrians Wall”, loaned from the Royal Photographic Society. The RPS, over the years have produced a number of lectures that could be borrowed by clubs. The lecture consisted of a supply of prints or slides with a written script, which members could read out alongside the relevant work, later these scripts woe to be put onto tape, although it was felt to be rather cold as there was no emotion on the tape.

On one occasion the club sent a collection of prints to the RPS, for them to provide

a commentary. this was then made available for other clubs to use.

Another intriguing talk was on “Antiques” by HA Leonard from Winchester. The talk was about antiques; what made something antique; why we need antiques; how to photograph antiques; Whilst it, on the surface, is perhaps not something that would normally be expected for a Camera Club lecture. it was received with great enthusiasm.

Colour photography is beginning to filter through to clubs ever increasingly. The first of two lectures this season, both sponsored by large companies, was called “Colour in Photography”.

The lecture was given by a representative of Burroughs Welcome Limited, and it was aimed at the home processor.

This market had shown a steady increase in recent times, with more members attempting to produce more of their own work. The Company gave the Club four (4) sets of colour chemicals to be raffled or whatever amongst the members.

The second lecture “Using colour film”, was given by HC Messer of Agfa Limited. This was a talk on using colour film to its best advantage. Many useful tips were given on the best use of the film. They did advise that all colour film was best kept in the dark, if exposed to bright light for long periods, there was a danger of fading.

Agfa gave the Club a dozen rolls of their latest film.

According to reports, both evenings were received by members with great interest and tremendous enthusiasm, some of whom were the proud owners of the despised ‘Toys’ (see last year).

1931 This year sees Jasper Thompson once more in the ‘chair’.

The Burroughs Welcome Company gave two talks this season. The first was on the ‘Oleobrom Process’, a modification of the Bromoil process. It was claimed to be easier to use and more flexible.

Members showed a lot of interest, with many questions being asked. During the 1920s and 30s, Bromoil was extremely popular as it gave a person the control to create something entirely individual.

The other was about Films, Plates and Papers, and was very well received by the members. The Burroughs Welcome Company, produced a very comprehensive range of materials aimed at the

... small spirin sized bottle!

amateur worker. (Buck: I recall in my early days in the club, members called the company the

‘Aspirin’ firm. This was because most of their chemicals came in small bottles with small aspirin sized tablets. I used them myself extensively, prior to mixing up my own.)

Burroughs Welcome ended the evening with a very popular gesture, a supply of Films, Papers. Plates and chemicals.

The President. realising the treasure for what it was, instituted a ‘rationing’ system to ensure fair distribution.

There was no Christmas Party this year, although a social evening was held in St Judes Church Hall. It was noted that a number of meetings were held there, which does seem strange as apparently the club premises were excellent. (Buck: If only there was more information about these anomalies).

“Copying Prints’”by the President. Proved to be a really first class evening, Jasper is very well known in this Club and others for making things from the most unlikely of materials, the members were not disappointed. He gave a very clear talk showing members the easiest way of going about copying. He stressed that it was important to match the plate with the subject to be copied. One tip still in use today, on any yellow or brown stained prints, by using a deep yellow filter the stains disappeared. ‘ ln voicing the thanks of the Club, Rex Verry told members that the evening could well have been titled ‘Do it yourself’, he had been fascinated by the home made

gadgets that Jasper had used.

1932 This years President was Major EC Whittle.

“Printing and Enlarging, Criterion Papers”, by Club Member T Manby. Materials with a commentary supplied

by Criterion, this as all practical evenings, proved to be very interesting. It was obvious that Mr Manby had done his ‘homework’ on the commentary. The President went through the commentary to help Mr Manby, but it proved unnecessary, although it caused quite a lot of levity as they bantered between themselves. A feature of the evening was a supply of paper for the members.

The President held a raffle to ensure a fair distribution among the members.

“Paper Negatives” by Major Whittle. This needed a special enlarger. Buck used one of these during the war. They had a charm of their own. If one became available he would be sorely tempted to acquire it.

Another evening that one doesn’t see now was the Amateur Photographer Prize slide collection.

This was made available to Photographic Clubs, unfortunately, there was a lot of competition among these clubs for them. It was a geat experience if you were lucky enough to get a set.

“Night Photography” by Ilford

Limited. This was on Lantern Plates and was an exciting evening.

The members saw some superb shots that were much appreciated. The climax of the evening was when Ilford gave every member a roll of high speed fllm. lt’s a funny thing, whether it was the climate, the slump in 1930, but during the past year or so, companies were only too glad to come along and talk or demonstrate their wares, and hand out some goodies.

1933 As the historian of the club.

January 9th 1933, is a fantastic date for me. It is the presence of an original Minute Book, previous ones having been destroyed in the 1939 - 1945 rumpus. With the minutes it gives one a better chance of recording the history of the club, we have something to build on. It would seem from the minutes that 1933 was an interesting year. At the meeting on the 9th, it was reported by the Treasurer that the total cash resources were £4.7s.10d (£4.39p)

on the possibility of using Cumberland House as the new Headquarters. It was agreed that providing a satisfactory arrangement regarding a tenancy could be achieved, we would move there. The Secretary would pursue the matter.

August 1933 The financial state of the club deteriorated in the 1930s.

According to Cecil Davies (a member at the time), the club would hold raffles, run whist drives, rummage sales, social evenings and even a dance or two to try and make some money.

This is the state of affairs in August of this year:- The sum of 17s10d (89p) in hand, 5s3d (27p) in the Bank.

The sum of £5.9s.8d (£5.18p) owing to Proctor & Co. The sum of £1.00 owed by Ensigns Ltd (Advertising).

A profit of £4.4s.7d (£4.20p) from the exhibition.

That was the sum total of the clubs finances.

decided. I appreciate that these notes are probably boring to some people, but, I feel that this shows some of the difficulties that the club were going through. No quarters and very little money.

November 1933 The Secretary informed the Committee, that Mr Pearce had offered a new lease at a rate of £40.00 per annum, payable quarterly, it was now upto the club to pay the rent. (did this mean up until this time they had not paid for their accommodation). The thought of paying £40.00, must have been a bit daunting, bearing in mind the financial difficulties.

One last item, the Cine Club offered to join up with the Camera Club, this was agreed, although any change to the Club’s name would have to wait until the next AGM. 1934

For the Annual Exhibition, llford Limited had agreed to place an advert on the back of the entry form, paying a fee of £1.00 for the privilege. They also agreed to advertise on both sides of the back cover of the catalogue for a fee of £3.00.

August 29th 1933 The Town Clerk had written to the Club Secretary regretting that no permanent tenancy of Cumberland House was possible. However, the club could use the lecture room from 29th September until 25th December, free of charge, whilst they looked for new premises. It would appear that the owner of the current premises, Mr Pearce, wanted to relet them to someone else.

April 1934 The Secretary reported that a profit of £3.18s.0d (£3.90p) had been made on the social evening. He thanked all those concerned in the running of it.

Mr Davey proposed that the amateur section in the Annual Exhibition be abolished, through lack of support.

The question of medals arose for the exhibition. It was ageed that the secretary obtain quotations for six (6) Silver and six (6) Bronze medals, up to a limit of £4.10s.0d (£4.50p).

June 1933 An Extraordinary General Meeting was called over the lack of suitable premises. A proposal was put forward

October 1933 Further correspondence from the Town Clerk, informed the committee that the Cumberland House tenancy had not yet been finally

May 1934 The Western Advertising Company offered to supply a film programme which would contain some advertising material. All apparatus and

expenses would be borne by them. providing, there was an audience of 150. The evening contained a most interesting programme, was held at St Judas Church Hall and was a great success.A raffle was held which supplied some very welcome funds for the club.

September 1934 Commander JH Bowen presented a lecture on the Development of the Port of Portsmouth. This proved to be a superb evening, illustrated

by Prints and Lantern Plates.

The Commanders knowledge of the subject plus his highly jocular manner made it an evening to be remembered.

October 1934 “Correct development by the Azol method”.

Azol produced by Johnsons Limited, was a very popular developer, and a very good one. Provided it was used properly, exceptionally line results could be obtained.

THIS APPLIES TO ALL DEVELOPERS RIGHT UP TO THE PRESENT DAY. As has become usual these days, there was a supply of the BREW for every/member present, accompanied by a fact sheet. ‘ November 1934 Mr Worley (later Lord Mayor) told the committee that he could purchase 40 secondhand cinema chairs for £6.00. The secretary was instructed to look at the chairs and if they were satisfactory, to acquire them.

It was agreed that the club room could do with redecorating, labour being provided by the members during the summer, all

materials being supplied by the club.

Finally the Easthope family, who published the local Newspaper, presented a cup for the best news picture of the year.

1935 January 1935 “Infra-Red Photography” presented by Ilford Limited.

Although infra-red photography had been around for many years, it was only now going to become available to the amateur. It was explained that llford were in the process of producing the film, and that they wanted to explain what it was all about.

Although there was a special filter produced, a dark red filter would do quite well.

... very strange results could be expected!

The big problem was that it was subject to being fogged by white light. Users must ALWAYS load the film in subdued light. Very strange results could be expected by the users. It was hoped that the film would be available within the next six months.

Another item refers to the Annual Exhibition awards. It was ageed that the number

of Silver and Bronze medals to be awarded would depend on the number of entries. The Presidents award would go to the exhibitor who gained the highest marks in the classes, provided that they had one a Silver medal.

The Committee ageed that the old enlarging lantern be sold to Mr Ashley for l5s 0d (75p), and that the stand be sold to Mr Eccles for 10s (50p). Big Deal!!!

There is a mention in the programme of Bertram Hutchings, from the Winchester Camera Club, a very likeable fellow. He was always willing to assist anybody. If you wrote to him with a problem, it usually meant an invite to tea.

(Buck: l remember that he gave a talk on mounting transparencies after the Second World War. Now bear in mind that slides were returned unmounted.

The means of mounting was two 2” x 2” pieces of glass, taped together with ‘passepartout’, with properly mitred joints. Well now, Bertram was a perfectionist, he took TWENT’Y minutes to mount one slide, holding it at an angle in a beam of light so as to see any dust.

After the break he asked for volunteers to have a go. and it was very amusing watching them struggle. Bertram had a very ready wit, and helped to make the evening a spectacular one.

October 1935 Talk by Ilford on “Panchromatism”.

The speaker was Mr A Harding, who had a very humorous way of talking. He said that the new emulsion would revolutionize picture mating. And stated firmly that the new emulsion would become universal. He ended the talk answering a barrage of questions from members, and then presented a roll of film to every member before leaving.

A full description of an event that occurred in 1935 follows:The Secretary produced a letter and a Hire Purchase agreement received from Mr JC Thompson.

Mr Thompson stated in his letter that the club had agreed to pay interest for the use of the Lantern until purchase was completed, but nothing had been paid since 1929. He now desired the matter to be regularised and provided the club entered into an agreement to purchase the Lantern, he was prepared to waive any claim he might have for interest not paid.

The terms of the agreement were, that the Lantern (described as second hand but condition as new) was to be hired at a charge of ten shillings (50p), to be paid on the signing of the agreement and a charge of fifteen shillings (75p) per quarter following.

When 12 quarterly payments had been made, the Lantern was to be deemed the property of the club.

The Secretary stated that according to the Club records, no agreement had been entered into by the club to pay Mr Thompsm any interest for the use of the lantern and that

in fact, apparently no definite arrangements had been made with regard to its purchase.

After discussion, Mr Davey proposed and Mr Medway seconded and it was resolved, that the agreement sent by Mr Thompson for the purchase of the lantern be signed on behalf of the club provided Mr Thompson agreed to the following alteration, viz, that the description of the Lantern in the sehedule be amended so as to read ‘second/hand but in good condition’; that the payment of ten shillings due on the signing of the agreement and the first quarterly charge of fifteen shillings, be deemed to have been made by the club delivering to Mr Thompson the sum of four shillings (20p) together with the clubs receipt for twenty one shillings (one guinea or £1.05p), the latter sum being Mr Thompsons Annual Subscription to the club, now due and payable but not paid, and that a signed duplicate of the agreement be delivered to the club.

This was signed by Mr Manby.

1936 March 1936 A Miss Layard FRPS, whose name appears on the committee for the first time, was a backroom worker, who specialised in photogaphing animals and birds. She was a very quiet and person, with a fund of knowledge about photography, that she was willing to impart on a one to one basis.

Two letters in correspondence of interest, are from two members in which they

relinquish any claim to monies lent to the club. They were from a Miss Fletcher 2s/6d (13p) and Mr Scadden £1.00.

The lady employed to clean the clubroom was no longer available and so, the secretary told the committee that a replacement had been found at the cost of 7s/6d (38p) per session. This does not seem very much now, but

... a great chunk out of the finances.

when you consider that the treasurer reported income over expenditure amounted to approximately £11.00, it would have been a great chunk out of the finances. These figures seem silly when one considers todays prices, but it is all relative.

April 1936 At the Annual General Meeting, no replacement could be found for the treasurer Mr Scott. It was therefore decided “that H Coker, the secretary, be authorised to sign all cheques on the banking account of the club, to endorse all cheques and other negotiable instruments payable to the club, to give receipts and generally to transmit any business incidental to the proper working of the banking

Syllabus for 1937/38

accountcf the club”.

Mr Coker told the committee that he would be quite willing to take the position of treasurer as well as secretary, after all that!!!

This has a familiar ring to it. ….. The competition secretary complained of the lack of punctuality on the part of some members bringing their work in. It was decided that if prints came in late they would not be accepted.

“After treatment of the Negative” by Johnson and Sons Ltd. Working on the negative physically is virtually a dead art, with the improved emulsions available now it has become unnecessary, although it is still practised by the professional using large negatives. The talk tonight was about chemical treatment, which is still used by solne advanced workers.

It was a very instructive and entertaining evening, however, there were no ‘freebies’ handed out, only information sheets.

August 1936 It was at this meeting that it was agreed that the cine section became an independent club, with the result that any use of the clubrooms be at an agreed rent.

September 1936 Ilford Ltd with a lecture on “Negative faults”.

An extremely interesting and informative talk by experts. with the aid of slides they showed the various faults and how to avoid them in the

future.

The Ilford Manual, was for many years the ‘Bible’ that workers found an essential part of the literature available to them. Unfortunately this ceased production in around 1966. One section contained pages of illustrations of the various faults in negatives.

1937 January 1937 “Spiders” by E A Robins FLS, FRPS, FRMS. Mr Robins was to meet Buck Taylor after the war. when he became a judge at the Annual Exhibition.

On this occasion it was not known that Mr Robins was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the RPS, for his work with spiders, his knowledge of general photography was not of the highest order. (Buck:What I do know is that his selection of work hung and in particular the awards given was too say the least somewhat odd. I remember all too well the adverse comments made about his choice of work.

The poor old exhibition secretary and the President were on the receiving end of many moans. I quite enjoyed it all being a very junior member, who had no pride to lose!).

Complaints were received about certain members always using the darkroom or studio.

It was suspected that they were being used for professional reasons, this was not allowed in our lease. it was decided that the use of the darkroom or studio should be restricted to booking in advance, for one date and time only.

Anyone found using either for commercial work would be drummed out of the club.

April 1937 “The Finley Colour Process”

by R Fanstone.

Some poking around has taken place, but nothing can be found out about this process.

Unlike today when everything comes in packets, before the 2nd World War and for some years after, many weirdand wonderful ‘Brews’ appeared. all with extravagant claims to be the miracle brew for one thing or another, in particular negative developers.

Most of them had a very short life indeed, one ‘DEV. X’, appeared on the scene only to disappear without trace. Mind you it did make life interesting.

October 1937 The Lord Mayor, Councillor FJ Spicknell JP, presented his cup to the club in the Guildhall Banqueting Room, followed by a Lantern Lecture ‘The French Alps’ by Dr JE Ford-Palser.

November 1937 Bill Bartle on “Composition”.

Bill was senior art master at the Portsmouth Grammar School.

Bill was a regular speaker at the club before and after the war ended. He was a person that could be as rude and caustic as he liked and nobody took offence at all because of his delightful manner. He was of tremendous help to the younger members of the club, one or two of them visited his house with a few prints to ask his advice. His talks on composition were marvellous down to earth talks. There was always a full house when Bill Boy was due to talk.

Annual General Meeting report. The secretary reported 1938 that it was very gratifying to have a very keen membership This year saw the demise of of 75. The club competitions the Cine part of the club. were verywell supported, as According to Percy Clark, were the local exhibitions. they left things in a disgusting The treasurer reported that the state, never swept or cleaned Lantern ‘misunderstanding’ anything up. so they were given with J C Thompson. Had the order of the boot! finally been settled, it now Last year saw the emergence belonged to the club.

by Kodak, of a very fine Special thanks were given to photogaphic paper indeed, it Cecil Davies, who had been a has proved to be very popular stalwart member since 1915, among clubs. I remember the with the exception of a short paper clearly, it reigned for spell in Malta. He had been many years, in fact only a year a very prominent member, or two ago, the odd firm still always ready to help in offered it for sale. The main organising and the running of point about the paper. Was that things. the tone could be controlled by Percy Clark is accepted as the strength of the developer Exhibition Secretary. Percy and the time of developing. attains his ARPS, he got it with Ask any of the older members a set of lantern plates, which and they will remember it with are still with the family, and affection. have been shown to the club on numerous occasions.

January 1938 Cecil Davies informed the committee that he was unable to act as Exhibition Secretary because of ill-health, and suggested that Percy Clark should take over.

A proposal by Mr Akehurst, seconded by Mr Bishop, that no exhibitor in the Annual Exhibition be allowed to win more than one award, was passed without dissention.

According to Percy Clark, this was due to the fact of a new member, Dr Neubet, joining the club the previous year and sweeping the board of trophies.

This was not liked by the ‘old bands’, who were used to winning a trophy every year.

April 1938

Charles Fry, a chemist in Albert Road, Southsea, whose name appears for the first time, was a very dedicated photogapher who left his mark on the club. He talked to the club on ‘My Photography’.

Chas was in the main a landscape worker, with occasional trips into other realms. He had a vast knowledge of the chemistry of our hobby. I can still see Chas with his pipe, leaning against the wall talking to members about the various brows and how to use them, in that quiet voice of his.

My father was in business across the road from Chas, so I would go across and clean his shop out for him. I then got interested in photography and used to assist in his darkroom,

where I learned the basics of a fascinating hobby, plus a thing or two about chemistry.

That was the start of my interest in photography, which fortunately has never left me.

The first mention of a summer for the 1930s. It was agreed to hold fortnightly rambles throughout the summer to start in May.

... hostilities being declared.

1939 The War Years In spite of the atmosphere it was agreed to proceed with the 1939/40 syllabus. One of the arranged talks was by ‘Carbro Autotype Limited’, unfortunately the season never got off the ground, hostilities being declared.

One interesting fact is in the minutes on January 16th 1939, and I quote ‘Proposed by Mr Lubbock, seconded by Mr Fry, that the booking fee for the use of the darkroom be increased to 2s/6d (l3p) from 2s/0d (10p) per session and door keys 1s/0d (5p) from 6d (2½p)’.

The minutes of the 51st AGM were never entered in the book and eventually written off as

lost.

The club declined in September 1939, and it finally closed down in January 1940, with the premises given up.

The premises, in the terms of the lease, should have been returned in the state in which they were taken, to have done this would have cost between £25.00 and £30.00, if you could have got it done, due to the hostilities, this was never persued. A quote from the minute book, “What apparatus that could be salvaged was scattered amongst members, the other fittings were sold to the Portsmouth Welfare Association for the young for the sum of £5.00, the offer was take it or leave it, so it was accepted.

Chas Fry and some of the members didn’t agree with closing down, which was at Percy Bishops insistence, and arranged to meet at Russells the Photographers in Osborne Road, Southsea, until January 1941, when they were bombed.

The club then moved to Chas Fry’s premises until the end of I943 when it finaIly closed for the duration of the war.

1945 After the conflict.

The club was reformed in 1945. After a long search for suitable premises and talking to the city librarian, Mr Sargent. the club re-opened at the Carnegie Library in Fratton Road, on Thursday 25th October, with 29 members being present.

“Printing” by Jim Hewes.

Buck says “I knew Jim for many years, he was a very lively character who gave full value when he gave a talk, unlike many ‘pros’ he was always willing to tell how he went about his task. There were no secrets with Jim”!

“Colour Photography” by M Bradshaw-Bond.

B.B. as he was called was completely colour blind, but managed to produce some remarkable colour prints.

Apparently he would ask his wife when having a printing session what she thought of them. She was Housemaster of the Girls High School in Gosport. B.B., a scientist with an enquiring mind, could always be relied upon to produce some little trick to amuse the natives.

the committee and a revised set was to be offered to the general meeting to be held on 13th December to approve same. This was done and unanimously passed by the 33 members present. Times never change do they?

1946 January 24 1946 “Cruising in Italy” by Rex Verry ARPS. This was a farewell visit by a regular member of the club. Rex was leaving to take up residence in London as photographic advisor to HM Treasury.

Rex gave a Lantern Plate lecture of his travels in Italy.

After the lecture he presented the lantern that he had used to the club as a farewell gift. This lantern could project both lantern plates and miniature slides. The lantern is still in nd The 52 Annual General use today (1993) on the odd Meeting was held on Thursday occasion when we show old lantern plates.

22nd November 1945.

There were 45 members in Rex still kept in touch with the attendance. The rules drawn club, both as a Iecturer and up by the acting committee a judge. He was a delightful were approved by the character, who in-spite of his members. ‘exalted’ office talked about The treasurers report showed a photography as an equal, and total of £26-18s-3d (£26.92p) was sadly missed as a very in the kitty, from all sources. energetic back room boy.

The acting President Mr WC Webb, was confirmed as President for the year.

February 19th 1946 Mr Fry handed over £5.00 At a committee meeting it was to the treasurer, being the decided to hold an exhibition balance from the war time for members only at the meetings that he had run Carnegie Library from 11th to during the hostilities.

18th May, with Cecil Davies There followed a precedent being asked to judge it. which seems to have prevailed for many years in the club, an obsession with the club rules.

September 1946 The rules passed last week at The rules for competition to the AGM, were examined by be drawn up and put to the

AGM, it being ageed to use the club funds for prizes of £1.00, 15/- (75p) and 10/(50p).

September 24 1946 The night of the Annual General Meeting. This must have been a very drawn out meeting as it covers 4 pages in the minute book!

The treasuers report is of interest. last year we commenced with a balance of £31-18s-3d (£31.92p).

Total income for the year was £112-13s-9d (£1l2.69p) less expenses of £21-7s-lld (£21.35). leaving a balance of £91-6s-9d (£91.34p), giving a total of £123-5s-0d (£123.25p). The President observed that it was important to have a good reserve, so as to work towards our own quarters.

October 1946 “Indoor Portraiture” by Kodak Limited.

This was all about available light portraiture. How to make the best of windows and reflectors? The use of newspapers, as a means of getting detail in the shadows was suggested, and of course the use of the correct Kodak films.

December 1946 “Photographic Discussion” by Charles Fry. This was a sort of workshop talk in, in which members brought in prints and negatives for discussion. Chas would tell members where in his opinion they could have been improved or praise the good points as necessary.

1947 Owing to the difficulties over a suitable venue, it was agreed to hold the 1947 Annual Exhibition at the Carnegie Library again.

This was the year that I joined the club at Chas Fry’s insistence. Jim Hewes, who had talked to the club in the past, also joined. There were also two more who joined in the same year, Ron Cake and Frank Clements. Jim and Ron couldn’t have been further apart. Jim turned out to be a real live wire. he was inclined to tread on the odd persons toes, whereas Ron was the quiet one, but both turned out to be excellent photographers.

March 1947 This was a two part evening, the first half was spotting by Chas Belcher, he was a very complicated character with a volatile nature.

The second half was a Mr EC Laming, he was not a club member, but a local ‘pro’.

Chas Belcher was showing spotting prints whilst Mr Laming showed working on the negative. The evening

... “maybe someone will thump someone”.

began peaceably enough, but as it went on the two speakers began to make snide remarks to each other, which as the evening wore on got rather heated. I was sitting with a couple of new boys like myself, wondering what was going to happen next, I recall that one of my colleagues whispered that ‘maybe someone will thump someone’. Anyway the President called them to order saying that this was not a debating society and would they please get back to photography. Great stuff!!!

At a committee meeting it was decided to set up a library, and charge a penny per week, Lt. Comm. Mills offered to try and set it up.

It was also ageed to enter the Photographic Alliance Print and Slide Competition.

We made a loss on the exhibition of £2-lls-2d (£2.56p), due to a mistake in the printing costs.

This was my first exhibition AND I had a print accepted.

Fantastic!!! I attended the judging of the exhibition, I was amazed with it all. I realised that l was very lucky to get a print hung. There was no making sure that you had “something in”, like today.

September 1947 “Print Control” by MP Wooller ARPS. Mr Wooller was a member of the Petersfield Club and was also an established artist, the things that he did to prints had to be seen to be believed.

He showed a series of before and after prints, showing how he had transformed them.

C Fry Esq. ARPS MPS

GW Edwards Esq.

Another marvellous evening.

October 1947 “35mm Photography” by Lancelot Vining FRPS, FIBP Lancelot Vining was one of those real characters around in those days, sadly they have all gone now, with no replacements, more’s the pity.

I remember that talk about using a Contax camera was an eye opener, with the whole evening peppered with stories of his life as a Fleet Street Photographer. I still recall very vividly when on a later visit, I had a meal with him, over which he retold more of his stories, some of which I still remember.

1948 This was the Diamond Jubilee year of the club. The Annual Exhibition was held at the now defunct Castle Tea Rooms from May 9th to 19th inclusive. The judge was Dudley Johnson, and was opened by Dr BosworthWright, Chairman of the Southsea Beach and Publicity Committee.

January 12th 1948 There was a rather strange proposition in the minutes.

It was ‘that all entries to exhibition be presented to a selection committee, to eliminate those not up to standard’. This caused a very lively discussion ending with it being soundly defeated. ALL entries must be presented to the judge.

There were two habitual complainers at the time,

Charlie Belcher and Arthur Purches. Charlie was the lesser of the two, Arthur was way out on his own. I am surprised he ever joined any club.

Anyway these two had some complaints regarding the Winter Syllabus. so a committee meeting was called for the following week.

January 19th 1948 The meeting was a somewhat protracted affair resulting in the following statement, ‘Owing to the dissatisfaction of some members, it was proposed that a sub committee be formed to work out a syllabus that will satisfy everybody. The poor syllabus secretary was reprimanded but not disrated. It would appear that the problem arose because he had withheld the name of Basil Bailey of London from the progamme, as he thought it would be a nice surprise for club

... knives in bodies and that sort of thing.

February 1948 “Camera versus crime” by Detective Sergeant George Taylor.

George was known as a ‘character’, he certainly was one, the members were entertained by his way of expressing things. He showed a

lot of Black and White lantern plates, many of which depicted the seamier side of crime, knives in bodies and that sort of thing. His manner was such that it didn’t offend anybody.

Sid Woodriffe who was also a copper, said that he new George, who was respected by all that knew him.

April 19th 1948 It was ageed to support the Amateur Photographers ‘OUR TOWN’ competition of 50 prints from each club.

Oh dear!, I well remember this.

We ended up with a collection of 50 prints of all sizes from 10” x 8” down to half plate, all colours and all surfaces. inclusive of black spots and white spots. Myself (Buck) with Jim and Molly Hewes spent all one Sunday spotting them and dealing with the black spots (they had to be in the post by Monday morning).

When the result came out we were THIRD – from bottom and in the judges report it read “I congratulate the artist who turned all the black spots into birds, very well done!”

September 1948 We were very lucky to have in Cecil Guy, a member who was dealing in war damage claims, who was working on behalf of the club members.

The treasurer reported that the club had a number of people on the books who hadn’t paid yet, but there were 85 paid up members.

Owing to difficulties in holding the AGM in September for a number of reasons, it was decided to end the financial year in March and hold the

AGM in April or early May. 1949 In those days judging was done by the members with the exception of the finals.

This year an innovation was tried out. There used to be about 70-80 prints per session, with two members appointed as judges. One judge did a minute on the print, then the other did a 10 second summing up, changing over every other print. This was all controlled by the President who had a timer and called time like a Publican.

Mr A Purches told the committee that he couldn’t complete the syllabus and was resigning from the position.

This happened a number of times with him, he was rather unreliable!

This was the year when the AGM was changed from the autulm to the spring, it being held on May 5th. All the officers were re-elected ‘enbloc’ for the following year.

April 1949 “Negative retouching” by ‘B.B.’ as he was affectionately known.

This was now virtually a dead art, certainly, amongst amateurs, although there may still be the odd die hard doing it.

B.B. told members that it was necessary to treat the negative with a retouching medium, to give it a key. Then, using a pencil, these were very long leads of various grades which were fitted into a retractable holder. They were sharpened to provide a very long (2 inch)

point, tapered to a needle.

It took quite a long time to prepare one for use. After showing the members how to go about it he asked for volunteers to try their hand at it, this caused quite a lot of amusement. B.B. told members that when he had finished, no work was required on the finished print.

the display, and nearly 1000 catalogues were sold. A bit different from today.

In those days the catalogue carried advertisements, and was not completed by the Exhibition Secretary but usually by someone who had a few contacts.

A letter was received from Mr Sargent, the Chief Librarian, stating that from 16th May we would be charged ls-3d (8p) per half hour after 8 o’clock, for the use of our lecture rooms at the Carnegie Library, this money should be paid to the caretaker.

In the official 1950 Portsmouth and Southsea guide this year there were no less than five prints from members of the club. A letter from Mr Alex Kinnear, publicity manager, thanked the club for the pictures and asked that the members concerned be thanked. That was all, no remuneration or free tickets.

November 1949 “Chemistry of Photography”

by Charles Duncan FRPS for Johnsons Ltd. This evening was a real humdinger. After a brief talk on the basics of chemical photography, Charles (he insisted on it) proceeded to coat a piece of glass with an emulsion that he mixed up. To this he stuck on a doily, asking for a member of the audience to expose it over a light. He left the member holding the glass over the light whilst he carried on with his talk. The member stood there for about 20 minutes holding this piece of glass, whilst Charles carried on talking. Eventually it was processed and to the members amazement there was a negative of the doily. All of this had been done in normal room lighting.

A report on the exhibition, where over 3000 people visited

1950

At the committee meeting held in January the following coach outings were arranged for the summer. 1. Isle of Wight, 2. Winchester, 3. Romsey and Stockbridge with finally a trip to Goodwood Races.

There would be a prize for the best series of pictures taken.

An observation that some members couldn’t or didn’t attend the outings thereby not being able to compete, was thrown out by the President, saying that the competition was for those that attended, if they didn’t attend that was their hard luck.

The quartet to visit Winchester would consist of Messrs. RA Thomas, A Turtle, CH Guy, JA Hewes and HP Bishop.

It would appear that the committee cannot count!

Seriously, these quartet’s were very much part of club life in

those days, with the three clubs Southampton, Winchester and Portsmouth exchanging with each other. They were usually very lively evenings with a lot of back chat between clubs.

February 1950 “Portrait Demonstration” by Jim Hewes.

Members brought their own cameras to these regular annual affairs. With Jim in charge, the evenings were very lively indeed. I can still visualise Jim charging about, giving advice, altering lights.

He was a real dynamo. if you brought a camera with you you had to use it, if you hadn’t, why hadn’t you and why did you bother to come at all. All this in a hurnerous vein.

March 1950 Many old readers of the Amateur Photographer will remember the print critic ‘Ricardo’, with his advice and diagrams. His real name was AJ Milne FRPS, and what a very prolific speaker he was. He had brought a series of prints with him, over which he laid tracing paper with lines drawn on them, showing the faults and virtues of composition, he called it balance, saying that if a picture looked right it usually was.

October 1950 It was reported that we now had 100 paid up members, with 17 joining since the 1949 exhibition.

The treasurer reported that the Annual Exhibition showed a profit of £2-18s-7d (£2.93p) and that to this should be

added the subscriptions of the new members who had joined as a result of the exhibition.

The outings showed a loss of l6s-7d (83p). The adverse balance was due to the coach not being filled on the last outing.

November 1950 “Intelligent Processing”. A return by Charles Duncan FRPS of Johnsons Ltd. This was a talk on the use of chemicals used in every day photography. His advice on using various brews to change the colour of the image was extremely interesting. After a very informative and lively evening. Charles distributed ‘freebie’s’ to the members.

1951 January 1951

... do his best to get you in a better position.

“Experiences of a Press Photographer” by Alex Ttrtle.

Alex has a way of expressing himself that is wholly absorbing. His tales about going out with his plate camera to photograph the Queen arriving at the harbour early on a November morning, where the meter gives a reading some 4 stops

or so above the practical exposure that can be given.

The subsequent ‘whoosh’ development of the plate made members shudder a bit, ‘whoosh’ was using Johnsons press developer concentrated at around 85 Deg.F. and just ‘whooshing’ the plate through the developer. I have seen Alex do this, and how he got quality like he did is beyond me.

Fratton Park on winters days at about 4 o’clock was another occasion when it was used.

Dropping his bag and breaking all the plates but one! He was full of stories about the trials and pit falls of the day.

Mind you if Alex saw you with a camera at a venue, he would do his best to get you in a better position.

February 1951 “Using Multiple Flash” by Harold White.

A professional photographer, Harold had built his own ‘box’ with which he could trigger no less than 12 bulb flash guns at once. He showed members a number of church interiors where he had used all twelve.

One that I recall was when he wanted a strong light on to the Altar, so he mounted a flash gun outside to flash through a window onto the Altar, then shook some cassocks to get dust into the light to give it some atmosphere.

It was at this meeting that Harold coined a phrase that he used for many years. To explain, Harold advertised a make of tripod, sitting on it when it was fully extended.

Well, during question time, some bright spark asked ‘was his backside screwed English or Continental

thread’. I cannot recall ever seeing a speaker cornplately dumbfounded or heard so much laughter in the club.

To explain to the present day workers, there were in cameras two tripod threads in use, one since having been discarded.

Mr Hayward, the treasurer announced that the Club had made a profit on the surplus sale of £78-13s (£78.65p), which was very welcome indeed.

firstly, to re-introduce member voting, as it seemed that this worked well in the past and secondly that there should be some sort of award. It was further decided to have two goups, advanced and beginners. In those days all print entries were no bigger than 10” by 8”, this was to allow any judges suggestions to be incorporated in the final exhibition print.

Norman Shuttleworth presented a very interesting evening on ‘correcting verticals’. He was a retired scientist, with a very enquiring mind. He had worked out a system which involved inclining the camera, noting the degrees of tilt and then by some very involved mathematics, (which he told the club about), the negative and the baseboard were given a precise tilt. This was an extremely precise movement.

The result was perfectly straight verticals. The only snag was acquiring an enlarger and tripod that could be altered so precisely.

Norman had modified his own equipment, from which he showed a number of prints, both before and after correction. The effect was remarkable.

The committee had received complaints about the overall quality and support of the first three competitions. It would appear that some of the senior members were refraining from putting in work. A suggestion that it was due to the poor summer last year, was dismissed out of hand.

Two suggestions were made to try to rectify the situation.

Until this year. there had been a free for all at the AGMs, which had been unsatisfactory and quite dreadful, with members being pushed unwillingly into post that they couldn’t fulfil. This year saw nominations correctly proposed and seconded, thus doing away with the previous ‘system’.

This was also the year that

March 1951 At a committee meeting it was decided to introduce set subjects based on technical exercises, these would not be competitive, but would be discussed at the next meeting.

It was also ayeed that we must seriously look for new quarters, the rent wasincreasing all the time.

Although the room itself was adequate. it was not really what was wanted. It was agreed to try a meeting at Buckingham House, High Street, Old Portsmouth and go into the accessibility and financial aspect.

1952

Wing Commander RD Coath arrived on the scene. He was a very funny character, who insisted on being addressed as Wing Commander, unless you received the accolade to call him Bob! Big Deal, I am promoted from assistant exhibition secretary to joint secretary with ‘Pop’ Edwards. Despite our great difference in age, we get on like a house on fire.

Jack Davies commented on the voting of prints by members.

He had done an analysis of the voting, which showed a number of irrational points.

A member challenged him with the reaction that Dave (Jack Davies) as he was known exploded with rage. He was a very touchy person at the best of times, but to challenge him was to receive his wrath.

The club enjoyed the ensuing argument which ended in a draw.

I would like to correct an oversight. Our President, Cecil Guy, was in my opinion one of the real characters in the world of camera clubs. His methods were unbelievably primitive by present day standards. He used a really enormous horizontal enlarger, converted to electric light with a 750 watt lamp as power. He would also cover the lamphouse with a couple of old coats to keep the light in.

He once gave a demonstration on enlarging at the Carnegie Library, when the coats started to smoke!

The lens was an old brass affair that he bought from a schoolboy for a penny. Cecil had painted out the various

scratches with black paint, yet he produced pictures. He is one of the very few picture makers that l have seen, he seemed to have an instinctive eye for a picture.

1953 Around this time a number of premises were inspected with a view to moving the Club premises. Offers from Gales, Brickwoods and the Radical Club were looked at and rejected. Charles Fry mentioned that the Mayville High School had suitable premises for club meetings, and were available for Thursday evenings. The club subsequently took up the offer and were to meet here for the foreseeable future.

This was also the year that we exhibited a set of prints at the Annual Exhibition, showing the Royal Family on a recent visit to Portsmouth.

The exhibition itself attracted well over 3000 visitors. It appeared that the Annual Exhibition at the South Parade Pier was getting earlier every year. Cumberland House was mooted as a possible venue, Jim Hewes, a prominent photogapher from Lawrence Road in Southsea, offered to explore the possibilities.

Frank Clements earned a nickname of ‘Carts’ Clements, for the number of photogaphs that he featuring carts, big carts, little carts, dogcarts and railway carts. His nickname was to change in later years to ‘Clouds’ Clements owing to the number of prints in which he had put clouds into.

The Club at the AGM ageed to buy £300.00 of 3% Government Bonds. I wonder

what happened to them.

A regular feature of club life around this period, was a practical portraiture evening, which for many years was run by Jimmy Hewes, it was an evening not to be missed.

To just sit and watch James charging around, giving advice, changing the lights and explaining why helping the novices, was really something.

Jim was a very,very good member to have around.

I feel that I must mention a couple of refreshing evenings, both made an impression on me in different ways. The first was Karl Pollack, who originated from Poland and although he lectured in a marked accent, when l was fortunate enough to have dinner with him, his English was impeccable. His lecture this time was ‘Comparisons’, a series of portraits showing various sitters as a normal studio shot, then as Karl had taken it. His portraits with his lighting were superb, full of feeling and wonderful quality.

The lighting that he used for all his work was three ordinary 150 watt lamps in simple shades!

... making one side of my face older

The next was “The Art of Make-up for Portraiture”

by Richard Blore from L Leinchners of London.

He wanted a model to demonstrate on and somehow I got chosen! I’m not sure how it happened, but I found myself sitting on a chair, in front of everybody. Richard demonstrated the various methods of hiding defects, such as bags under the eyes. double chins and many others.

He finished by making up one side of my face to make me look younger!!! Then made up the other side to look older!!!

I can still recall the laughter when one of my ‘friends’ said in a loud voice “that one side of my face looked like a babies bum, the other looked like an Old Hag” “Photographing out of doors” with Kevin Macdonald.

Kevin was a real live wire. He showed some superb outdoor pictures, mainly of Land and Townscapes. He very clearly explained how he achieved the final negative. The evening was taken up producing the right negative for the final print.

Kevin talked about the use of filters, lenses and viewpoint, all plafing a vital part in the final print, BUT the most important thing was the light.

To get the best result the light had to be RIGHT. The way to success was attention to the care taken in the previous points. A lot of questions asked at the end, which Kevin answered thoroughly. His final comment was ‘To produce a negative that required the minimal fiddling at the printing stage’.

Councillor Leanord Evans offered a cup to the Club, to be used in whatever way they saw fit. The President, in accepting his kind offer, thanked Mr Evans, saying that the cup would be a grand reward for members to aim for.

The allocation of the cup caused a lot of making one side of my face older discussion, in fact at one time it got rather heated.

Finally, it was agreed to use it as an aggregate trophy, instead of the monetary awards given in the print competition. Mr Evans had asked that the cup be called the ‘Elizabeth Cup’.

I should mention here that in the past the awards given in the Annual Exhibition were given by the members, The Mayor and other local dignitaries, and were retained by the persons who won them, (Buck: l have over the years acqiired quite a collection of medals, cups, a spoon and a rose bowl). At a date that I have been unable to ascertain. trophies were awarded on an annual basis, I suspect that there was no definite date, but like Topsy ‘it just growed and growed”.

1954 The President told the committee that he was dissatisfied with the way committee meetings were being run, they were far too protracted. Mr Charlie Fry outlined the procedure that should normally be used and that he proposed to keep

too! (I wish I knew what that procedure was, ‘cos they are still protracted. Trevor)

resulting smoke that arose!

At the AGM, the clubs finances proved to be in a very 1954 marked the beginning healthy state. To be precise of what would become for £452-9-0 (£452.45p), a profit want of a better phrase ‘Rule of £36 on the year. Ron Cake changing mania’. It would was in the chair this year. seem to me that no sooner We finally heard about the had a set of rules been decided tenancy of the Mayville High upon, that a mood would start School, which as you recall to change them. started in the last season. The gist of the agreement was £20 per annum for the use of the There had been difficulty in hall from September 1st to May 31st inclusive plus one Monday arranging a satisfactory date per month. for the exhibition on the pier, The AGM also saw the end of this had now been resolved Percy Bishop as secretary. He for this year. It was decided to felt that it was time a younger make a charge of 2/- (l0p) for member was given the job. He the tea this year on the pier. had been a tower of strength This tea had previously been free of charge to members and in getting the, club back on its a partner, but one member had feet after the war. brought along nine friends and several others brought along Here’s another memory of three or more friends last year which made the catering costs some more meetings.

First Norman Shuttleworth. extremely high. This, coupled He told members some time with increasing costs of the ago that he was interested in exhibition made it difficult to the Carbro Colour Process stay in the black. and agreed to talk to members about it. He was challenged to It is interesting to note that the reproduce a paint colour chart with ALL the corresponding cleanliness of the clubroom caused a lot of discussion. The shades identical. On the habit of stamping out cigarette evening. he explained to ends on the polished floor was members how he went about it. One had to be meticulous to be deplored. It was agreed with the process and that it to purchase some ashtrays in was possible to produce a print the hope that they would be in eight (yes 8) hours, but the used, Mrs Livesley would be process could be split up. asked to supply a broom. Len Richards and myself offered to Norman showed members a clean the room after meetings. number of prints that were not too bad. He was then One thing that happened asked about the colour chart. around this period was that He reached into his case and pipe smokers were asked to produced the chart that had sit at the rear of the hall on slide nights, because members been supplied by a member, he also produced an absolutely vision was restricted from the

perfect replica. When one considers the number of shades on a colour chart, it does seem remarkable.

Karl Pollock made a return visit to the club, this time he showed a collection of his work. This work had received acclaim all over the world, in all the main exhibitions.

He had several prints of the same portrait which had been sent to different parts of the world although no two prints were exactly the same, he told members that it was not possible to reproduce an exact copy, because of manipulation under the enlarger. A marvellous evening with a marvellous set of pictures.

Sammy Samson and myself were talking only the other day (October 1992) about reproducing our ‘Master Pieces’ for the same reason.

“Demonstration of Portraiture” by Don Herbert from the Southampton Camera Club.

Don like Karl was internationaly known in the photographic world. A delightful character, who showed the members how to transform a mediocre portrait into something quite different.

After the demonstration he showed a number of his pictures. One of which I vividly recall as being titled ‘Cupids Girlfriend’, showing a young girl leaning against a triangle, it had been all over the world.

An item of interest regarding the Annual Exhibition. In previous years we had always

displayed a panel in a shop window to advertise the exhibition, this year we had SEVEN! It was the intention to have a separate judge for the colour section in the exhibition (an artist), but this proved to be totally impractical and was consequently dropped.

1955 This is a year that stuck in mine and many other members minds for a very good reason. Wing Commander Coath was in the chair, and as I mentioned previously, he insisted on being called Wing Commander, with the exception of a favoured few, who could call him Bob. I had been invited to join the hallowed group but never availed myself of the honour!

Anyway to continue, he was always changing his equipment and at a committee meeting he completely ignored procedure and the agenda and proposed from the the club that we purchase a Kershaw slide projector. Well, a right old rumpus broke out I can tell you. When all the smoke had settled, the Wing Commander forced a vote on the subject ending in a complete rejection.

The Wing Commander was not happy about this, getting up and stalking out, subsequently resigned from the club. Mr Mitchell, Senior Vice President, took over for the rest of the season. Happy Days!

The Exhibition showed a loss of l/2d (6p). Ron Cake a stalwart member was posted to Malta.

This year saw a visit of one of the greatest, Press Photography’s Lancelot Vining. He wrote a column for the Amateur Photographer for many years and was real card. The title of his talk was ‘40 years in Fleet Street’, accompanied by a marvellous set of black and white lantern plates. Most of the plates had a story attached to them.

One that really sticks in my mind was a plate taken around 1906 I think, and showed the Horse-drawn Bow Street FIRE ENGINE going full pelt in the dark down the road to a fire. In those days Lance was a POWDER BOY for a press

... disappeared through a plate glass window!

photogapher. Apparently, if the Bow Street Fire Brigade had not had a call out that evening, at 10pm on the dot, they would race round the block at breakneck speed, to exercise the horses. Lancelot’s boss decided to photograph the occasion. This involved making the flash tray larger, and the pole longer.

On the night a pound of flashpowder was put on the tray and on the word NOW, Lance worked the flint, a blinding flash appeared and

HWR Lubbock Esq (President 1947)

HP Bishop Esq (President 1950)

10 seconds later, the horses with engine in tow disappeared through the nearest plate glass window. The thing that Lance remembered most was his boss saying ‘are you all right, son?’

What do I remember? An evening full of humour, advice and stories!

In those days the Club supported the Central Association’s exhibition, there are a couple of things that I recall from that exhibition.

Firstly, we once won the switch shield for the best slide and secondly, we had a print back with a large “Uskide” soled footprint on the print. Jim Hewes copied it and we sent a copy to the Central Association with a note saying we were aware that it was not in the top class, but walking on it did seem to be a funny way of showing it.

At about this time the Club was always invited to the dress rehearsal of the pantomime, and on a number of occasions, pictures from members were used in the foyer. This was stopped because a number of members took someone along who were obviously not members and the theatre management objected to this.

1955 was the year when I first raised the subject of the Club history. Various members were asked to gather material so that a start could be made.

I am afraid nothing very much transpired from this. it being left to yours truly to soldier on.

Here we go, rules, again.

This time the print and slide ones. The rules today are

very simple, but oh dear, this took practically the whole of a committee meeting, and covered nearly a page and a half in the minute book.

Reading through the rules, it is a wonder that the Club ever used them. Of course, anything that our old friend Jack Davies had a hand in was always complicated.

The Treasurer reported that paid up members had now reached 124. In the Bank was £357/15/5d (£357.77p). With £136/12/10d (£136.64P) cash in hand.

A mystery has appeared. A member Bradshaw-Bond asked whether colour prints could be accepted in the monthly competitions and that the word ‘monochrome’ be deleted from the exhibition entry form.

We had already had colour prints entered in both the monthly competitions and the exhibition. Nobody was quite sure what B-B really meant.

B-B was a delightful character but was inclined to get his knickers in a twist sometimes, as has probably happened today!

prints for each club is to be limited to twenty.

4. The maximum number of prints to be entered by any one worker to be two.

5. The Judge to be an independent person approved by each Club.

6. The Judges expenses to be born by theHome Club.

7. The entries to be packed and sealed by each Club and sent to the Secretary of the Home Club, to reach him not later than 10 days before the date of the battle.

8. If required, the entries of the Home Club to be loaned to the visiting Club for display to their members. These prints to be returned within 14 days.

This is typical of how Clubs operated in those days.

Surnames were used at all times, not like today when christian names are the norm, the formality could be a little isrbearing to the younger members. I much prefer these days with the more relaxed atmosphere. Ron Cake and myself would trundle around the district digging work out of members for the battles.

1956 A miracle occurred this year, in that we had three Print Battles and won them all. I must confess that Frank (Carts) Clements was inclined to claim credit for the success, mind you he did do a fair bit of running around badgerlng people.

Here is a copy of the Print Battle Rules. No slides were accepted at this time.

1. The Home Club is the Host.

2. The entries for each Club to be judged and displayed at the meeting of the Home Club.

3. The maximum number of

It was about this time that a number of us headed by Jim Hewes started to do battle with the diehards, on the way that the exhibition was hung, to explain the prints in their respective sections, namely Landscape, Portrait etc.

Portraiture was very strong in those days, and on the Pier, there was a long wall that took 70 Exhibition prints.

Frankly, it was overpowering. I know that the arguments waxed and wained over many months, anytime that the exhibition was mentioned. Jim was on his feet

ably supported by his disciples, putting his case and although it went on for a long time, eventually we achieved victory.

“PEOPLE I HAVE SHOT!” by James Jarche.

James was a world famous

... when everyone else bowed down to the Pope.

press photogapher, and like so many of his contemporaries was a another real character.

Some of his candid shots were out of this world. On a couple of occasions he had to scarper away very quickly. One story was of when be photographed the Pope, apparently he had to borrow dress clothes from a waiter in his hotel.

The time schedule was very tight, so he arranged for the waiter to meet him at the station, were he would change into his own clothes and give the waiter his own back.

Well, he attended the crowded meeting and ensconced himself in one corner of the Vatican near an exit.

When everyone else bowed down to the Pope, he clicked his shutter and fled of through the exit followed by angry shouts.

He was chased out of the Vatican and on arriving at the station, got on the train and

changed in a carriage passing his clothes through the window, but he forgot his braces and had to travel back to England with all his gear and hold his trousers up.

It doesn’t sound very much, but to listen to James telling it, was hilarious.

“Some Exhibition Hints” by Donald Allen FRPS, FRSA, FRES. Donald was internationally known on three counts, judging, talking and exhibiting.

He was the author of a number of photographic books. In fact he ate, slept and lived photography. He was a rather serious speaker who at times was inclined to be a little ‘School Masterish’. He showed the Club about 120, 16” by 20” prints, most of which were well covered on the back with what he called ‘Jam Pot Labels’. He stressed that the production of a first quality’ negative was of paramount importance.

An interesting evening full of advice and tips, enjoyed by all.

1957 Gales Brewery from Homdean offered a £5 voucher to the Club, suggesting a competition with the subject to be the Red Lion Inn at Chalton. After some discussion it was decided to have two prizes, 1st of £3 and 2nd of £2. The competition would close on June 15th with Major Gale selecting the winner.

I remember the entries being displayed for judging and there were some wonderful prints shown. It was announced at the club that the winner was

Madge Farrant with Cecil Guy second. They wre presented with vouchers to be spent at the Country Stores. Major Gale was so pleased with the outcome, that he gave a bottle of sherry to all the entrants.

Item of interest. Colour slides are coming up in the world.

The exhibition Judge, Rex Verry told the Club that in his opinion it was time that there was an award for colour slides.

For a number of years the Club had supported the Central Association’s annual exhibition.

This also included an entry for the Switch Shield. In the four years that we have entered, our record has been rather poor, with final positions of 11th, 13th, 10th and 14th respectively.

The average entry was of 18 Clubs. When one analysed the catalogues over a period, most of the awards seemed to go to London and District Clubs.

“The Best of both worlds” by G L Hawkins FRPS, FlBP, FRSA. George showed a large number of inpeccable 16” by 20” prints, a mixture of colour and Black and White. All were produced from colour transparencies.

George was a happy soul with a very bright and breezy manner. He talked a lot about taking the transparency and producing the final print, but not too much about the middle bit. He showed members two negatives, both 5” by 4”. But was very hazy on how they were produced.

We were left with the impression that they had been produced by Kodak. A very

enjoyable evening given by a very pleasant person.

“The Pictorial Landscapes of the Late Mrs K M Parsons” presented by Rex Verry FIBP FRPS. This gave members a chance to see the work of one of the finest workers in Landscape Photography. They were either 16” by 20” or 20” by 30”, all sweeping landscapes with magnificent skies, from all over the world. Mrs Parsons had been an intrepid traveller, using a quarter plate camera and either roll film, plates or film packs.

Her mountain scenes were really out of this world, it was one of the evenings that one doesn’t forget.

one night ‘a mountain is a mountain is a mountain’. They did become rather boring.

come for a trophy for colour slides be considered, as they were beginning to make great strides in quality these days.

This year was the first of a number of joint exhibitions with the Portsmouth and Southampton Photographic Societies. It was a rather uneasy partnership, with things always seeming to get a little mixed up. The biggest snag was a member of the other Club who promised a lot, than didn’t fulfil his promises, leaving things in a bit of a tangle.

The Secretary announced that the winners of the Gales Competition previously mentioned had received their vouchers and that every member had received as promised, a bottle of sherry.

Once more into the breech! At the AGM, two of the arch villains had a proposal passed that the Club rules be reviewed by a sub-committee for amendment, and to be presented at a later date to a Special General Meeting. Whenever the subject of rules was brought up, you could always rely on Jack Davies being amongst things, stirring them up. One or two members seemed to delight in altering the rules, no sooner are one set of rules agreed that another set of amendments are suggested! Why they couldn’t concentrate on photography was beyond me!!!

Two battles this year against Chichester and Southampton, both successful. Wonders will never cease!

1958

“The Darkroom Technique” by OM Dell of llfords Ltd. Oliver was a very quiet person who spoke very seriously and very sincerely about his subject.

He had brought along with him a selection of prints to illustrate the points that he made. He stressed, as others had done in the past, that a good negative was essential if quality was required. The last part of the evening was question time, it was obvious that a lot of interest had been aroused, because we were late finishing. It was apparent that here was a man who enjoyed his photography.

A very interesting motion was passed at the AGM about exhibition prints. The judge was not selecting enough prints for the exhibition, in spite of being of excellent quality, rejecting them on the gounds of insufficient space. The proposers of the motion were of the opinion that we should exhibit as many prints as possible, in mind that it was an exhibition of members work.

After a rather stormy discussion it was agreed that the selection committee should ‘vet’ this years work and that the selected prints would be hung, in future exhibitions.

The judge would be asked to One item from the syllabus, select about 25 prints from this that I among others are glad ‘vetted’ selection to be hung if that is no longer obligatory space was available. was the two ‘travelogues’ each A comment from Rex Verry. season given by Club Members. one of our eminent Judges, As one member put it to me that in his opinion the time had

My promotion to club Secretary happened in the most odd circumstances. It was a few days prior to the start of the clubs winter season, when there was a ring at my front door hell. I went to answer the door and found there was noone there, just a plastic bag full of books and papers and a note from Reg Portlock resigning from the Club for domestic reasons. This was the start of my reign as Club Secretary. It was a traumatic start I can tell you, but with the help of one or two people, in particular Jim Hewes, I managed to cope.

Commander Sterdale-Bennett told the club that his tour of

duty was nearly over and that the club would need a new exhibition Secretary. He would be sadly missed as far as I was concerned.

His running of the exhibition was impeccable, he used to publish what came to be known as ‘Orders of the day’.

When I think of previous

... heads which appeared to come right out of the screen.

exhibitions when a crisis always arose, not so with ‘Mr Orders of the day’.

“Stereoscopic Photography in Colour” by the Marquis of Ely. The Marquis had a stereo projector and issued glasses titted with one red and one blue lens to look at the images through. When I tried it, my eyes were affected in such a peculiar way that I had to leave the room. Talking to members afterwards, they talked about a Giraffe and Lions heads which appeared to come right out of the screen and over their heads, whilst with the landscapes, one got the impression that you were right in the middle of the picture. As one member said to me afterwards it was ‘bloody’ weird. Unfortunately, the Marquis retired shortly afterwards, so we were not able to get a return visit from him.

“Colour hinting Photography”

by Mr Bradshaw-Bond BCCS BSc. This was a part talk, part demonstration evening given by “BB”, as members knew him by. There was a large plastic waterbath, with seven small dishes filled with the necessary brews, warming to the required temperature.

While this was going on BB was explaining the whys and wherefores of the process, and that he had mixed the solutions himself. He stressed that rigid temperature was vital and that any contamination by carry over of chemicals was fatal. When all was ready he proceeded to produce two or three small colour prints in quick succession, for which he had the assistance of one or two member ‘volunteers’.

This was a fantastic evening, well organised by the Headmaster of Gosport High School. The amazing thing was that he was totally colour blind and relied on his wife for the colours.

1959 Now here’s a funny thing, a very funny thing. It was reported to me that Mr Tibble had passed on the History of the Club to Percy Bishop.

When Percy was asked about it he was totally mystified as nobody had passed anything on to him. In spite of many enquiries that little mystery was never solved.

A serious discussion arose in the committee over exhibition judges. It was proposed to ask

two artists to judge the colour slides, and two photogaphic judges for monochrome prints.

This was not accepted as it was deemed to complicated to manage.

Another problem was the expenses of the exhibition, in spite of a lot of correspondence with owners of the Exhibition site, the previous years Exhibition had not been settled.

Jim Hewes reported that there was a vacancy at the St Mary’s Institute on Thursday evenings, which would suit the clubs search for new premises.

The committee paid a visit to St Mary’s Institute, one evening after the club meeting.

It was an extremely fine room, with ample cupboard space on the ground floor, but a few minutes after we arrived there was a dreadful noise from the second floor. Apparently they had old time dancing on the same night, it was a pity because it would have been a splendid place for the clubs HQ. I was part of a sub-committee, in which twice we had to hammer out a set of rules, both very stormy, then an equally stormy committee meeting. I am a bit fed up with rules, especially as I have been the ‘dogs body’, as assistant secretary and now secretary, every time that the rules problem comes up, forever it seems.

An outside Exhibition section was formed. Miss Madge Farrant was asked and accepted the post of Outside Exhibition Secretary, with

complete control as to how she ran it. This has run for many years with great success.

“The Impudent Imposter”

by Clifford Steinbeck ARPS (BromoiI printing, practical) Clifford was a weird character, eccentric in his attire, manner and of addressing members, but in spite of all this, he gave a superb display of the technique, whilst keeping up a barrage of very good commentary in a manner that had everyone tucked up in stitches of laughter. He had one or two members trying their hand at pigmenting the print. They were very brave members indeed!

Everyone enjoyed the evening given by a man who was a Master of his craft.

“Floral Photography” by Eric Dash NDH This was a slide evening, or rather a talk illustrated by slides. Eric was a very serious person, who was a gardener rather than a photographer.

The evening changed around to a talk on gardening rather than the photographic side of it. All the questions asked were of a gardening nature.

Obviously this proved very

good value for money, two clubs for the price of one.

book(s) and of course finding space to store it.

“Print Finishing” by Cecil Guy Cecil does produce some magnificent prints, but my word, they are very dirty, requiring an enormous amount of retouching, at which Cecil is a master. Mind you he need to be to get rid of the literally hundreds of spots and scratches. He had a phrase that sticks in my mind ‘You can see the picture coming through the spots’. Cecil had asked members to bring prints and brushes with them, so that they could have a practical session towards the end of the evening.

At the AGM, the Secretary.

Bill Taylor, told members that he had approached the start of the season with some trepidation, as with the sudden death of Percy Bishop, the post of Syllabus Secretary had become vacant. Nothing had been done about the Syllabus and nobody would take the task on. The Secretary, with the help of Ron Cake, had put together a programme that seemed to satisfy all concerned for the rest of the season, even though parts of it had to be arranged from week to week.

1960

“Methods of the Masters” by Donald Allen FRPS FRSA FIBP. Donald was one of the leading lights in the photographic world, who brought along a collection of prints covering many years of his career. He talked about how they were achieved and how they could have been improved. His manner was very serious, but very interesting. He asked for questions from the floor as the evening went along and from the questions asked it was obvious that the members were listening.

This year was a small landmark in the Clubs History. It saw the start of the ‘TRIPLE BATTLE’, between ourselves, Southampton CC, and Winchester CC. This competition is still going today (1993).

At last! There seems to be set of rules that everyone is happy with. we certainly have been plagued by this problem over the last few years.

Ron Cake and I run a Central Association “One Day Conference’. it was held in the Chamber of Commerce and although it incurred a small loss (covered by the CA), it was a very successful day.

... you can see the picture coming through the spots.

The Club Library which had been stagnating over the last few years was finally wound up. It had been plagued by difficulties, non payment, members leaving with the

“Photographic Make-up”

by R Blore with Courtesy of Leichers Ltd. The first half was a serious talk on the types of make up to be used both hr Colour and Black & White. Many questions were asked, he told members that a block order through the club would save money because of the club discount.

Cecil C Davies when he was Secretary during the early 1920s

Norman G Kelsey FRIBA (President 1961/62)

Ron H Cake IRABA ARICS (President 1964)

The second half was hilarious.

Roger, in his comical manner, asked for a model to demonstrate on. No-one would volunteer, so he picked on the Secretary, and proceeded to make him up, showing the various types of make-up to use. He finished up by showing how age could be covered up or accentuated, doing the two types, one on each side of his face. A remark hom one of the members completed the evening by saying “One side looks like a babies bottom, the other looks like an old hag” “Some fell by the Wayside” by Rex Verry Rex is a long time member of the Club, who although having moved to London, still kept his connection: with the Club.

This was a collection of pictures that he had collected, together with some failures, from some very well known workers. It was an insight to members on how even the very established experts could produce ‘duds’. A truly brilliant evening.

1961 The President, Norman Kelsey, presented the Club with the Presidential ‘Gong’. lncidently this was valued recently (1992), and was found to be worth in excess of £300.00.

The Secretary, showed members the Plaque that Terry Lawson had made for the ‘Triple Battle’. It was a marvellous Plaque that is still in use today.

The large projector (3¾” square) was being heavily

criticised for it’s lack of lighting in this modern age.

Ted Faber offered to play with it. He ripped out the old lighting system and installed a modern one with a cooling fan. It made an immense improvement to the projector.

Terry Lawson reported that the summer outings had been successful last year and that he was planning this years outings.

When one looks at some of the expenses incurred in running the Clubs Annual Dinner, they seem ridiculous in the light of today, 12/6 (63p) for Dinner tickets! WOW, £16.00 last time (1992).

It was about this time that illumination by the projectors, raised its ugly head. This went on for many years. Members would dance around the room waving light meters at the screen. The resulting different readings obtained, caused a lot of arguments amongst the owners of the light meters, and were the source of much entertainment for those not involved. I remember one occasion when members brought along four projectors, which with a lot of meters around, all being used as per the RPSs instructions resulted in an amazing result of figures.

One of the evenings that sticks in my mind this year, was Frank Clements practical.

Frank brought along his enormous horizontal projector and with his inimitable style proceeded to show the members how it worked.

An enjoyable evening made

more so by Frank’s obvious enthusiasm.

Another highlight was a visit by Arthur Milner of the Amateur Photographer, on “Composition “. He was the AP’s print critic, any of the older photographers will remember “Ricardo”, as he was called. A delightful person who with the prints that had brought with him, plus large sheets of paper and chalk, gave members a very clear insight into what makes a picture.

“New Zealand” by ‘Hug’ Wallis.

Hug had been raised in New Zealand, and had a superb set of prints and slides, showing mainly the rural parts and the wonderful Maori culture.

A magnificent evening, far removed from the usual travelogue type of evening that has predominated over the last year or so.

An honour was bestowed upon club member, Alex Turtle ARPS, who had been invited to talk to the Royal Photographic Society. The only other record in the club of this happening was way back in 1905, when FJ Mortimor was invited to talk on ‘Wave photography’.

Here we go again.

Andrew Hardy wrote to the committee criticising the AGM, and requested a special general meeting to be held in order to change the rules.

This caused a bit of a rumpus ending with the Secretary and Assistant Secretary getting together and writing a tactful

letter to Andrew, with the hope of calming him down, and asking him to put forward his suggestions to the committee for discussion.

1962 Norman Kelsey was asked by Brother Aldhem as to whether he would ‘do’ another year as President. Norman agreed willingly to stay for the coming year.

The folio of prints that the secretary and Ron Cake had been collecting, had now been delivered to the Central Association.

This year also saw the inception of a colour group.

This aspect had so far had no official recognition, although it seemed a very lively infant.

One would hope that in the years to follow it would prove to be one of the highlights of the clubs season.

John Greenhouse asked why it was necessary to restrict Black & White slides to 3¾” x 3¾” in size.

This item provoked a really lively discussion, culminating in it being agreed to accept monochrome slides in any standard format. The upshot of this was that no-one ever entered anything except the larger size.

that he was keeping in touch with Mrs Livesley (the school secretary) but that at the moment there was no further news.

One Thursday I remember arriving at the Club to a right old rumpus. It appeared that someone had let the hall to ladies choir. By the time that I arrived things had got extremely heated.

The Camera Club members left me as secretary to sort things out. This proved to be very difficult as my opposite Choir member was really on the boil, she just wouldn’t talk about it. I tried to explain that as we had a lease with the Mayville School, we had prior rights to the hall. In the end I just had to be firm and insist that they vacate the hall.

Ron Cake took steps to get it sorted out with Mrs Livesley, who apologised over the mix up, it had been due to to a junior teacher ‘booking’ the hall, to which she had no right to do.

The new hall plans had been re-submitted and there was hope that they would be passed this time.

We are still scratching around with the rules, it was a subject that seemed to interest just a few members, who always seemed to be in a ferment over them.

One of the results of this was that I informed the Around this time there was committee that due to a some uncertainty over the number of proposals to the clubs quarters, the old building competition rules, they had was coming down and a new become unworkable. Due to one was replacing it. In the the chaotic and contradictory meantime therefore, we would alterations, l was instructed have to look around for new along with Ron Cake to try premises. Jim Hewes reported and put some sense into them.

... a very well developed nude.

It was wonderful to see that when the rules were sorted out and presented, they were accepted without any objections. What a miracle!!!

“Colour for the fun of it” by Percy Short.

Percy was an extraordinary bloke. He seems to photograph anything that took his fancy, even taking aerial shots. A feature of this evening was that every so often there appeared a very well developed nude, apparently the idea was to keep members awake waiting for the next one!

1963 As one reads through the previous minutes it becomes clear that there is one comment running through from year to year, the loss of members.

They join, stay for one or two years then disappear.

The comment made by the Treasurer was that the ‘committee should look into it’. It is exactly the same today.

Whilst talking to members from other clubs you realise that it is not peculiar just to our club, but happens all over the place to all sorts of clubs. I don’t know what the answer is

AJ (Sammy) Samson Esq. (President 1968)

or even if there is one.

The Battle results were a disaster, the Triple Battle was bad enough but at the Chichester Battle we took a well deserved hiding.

This year Sammy Samson had got the Club an epidiascope from De Havillands. It was a very fine instrument, but after we had blown a couple of bulbs and two plate glass sheets shattered, we found out that we must have a cooling air supply.As a club member said, “as most of the committees comments were ‘Hot Air’ there was no cool air available”.

I am asked to attend the Central Association’s Annual General Meeting, to try and find out the future for the outlying clubs. I came away from the meeting with the impression that the evening had been a waste of time and expense in attending.

Throughout the evening I sat with some country cousins who were of the same mind, the result being that we eventually severed connections with the Central Association.

This was also the year that Kodak started their Spectaculars. Kodak booked the hall and asked members for their help on the night. The club had 200 tickets for their own use. This Spectacular was held on South Parade Pier and the place was packed. They went on for a number of years and then Kodak suddenly dropped them.

Specto Limited.

He was a very large person who gave a very and at times extremely humerous talk, covering Black and White, Colour Slide and Cine combined to a tape recorder.

There were a number of innovations: The slides were projected by the speaker personally, combining them very successfully with a taped commentary. Scattered among the slides were funny place names on sign posts.

His closing tape was put on with the remark of “we can harness nuclear power, can put a man in space, travel at fantastic speeds, yet our plumbing belongs to the dark ages”. He enlarged on the point with a tape recording of wash hand basins being emptied in various hotel rooms all over the country. The sounds had to be heard to be believed. What a hilarious end to an enjoyable evening!

“Practical printing demonstration” by Jimmy Hewes ARPS, AIBP Jimmy is a professional photographer, with an extremely entertaining manner. He would show members how to go about enlarging a print and most importantly, not forget the novice side of things. Jimmy is never lost for words, and as I have mentioned before, the arguments between himself and Alec Turtle were legendary in the club, but all in fun.

1964

“Fun with things photographic” with Mr Stanton King courtesy of

There was a proposition that Ron Hildersley be co-opted

onto the selection committee to deal with the Colour Prints submitted. This was not proceeded with as it was considered that it would create an intolerable situation.

Thanks to Terry Lawson we had gained 21 new members at the recent Photo Fair at the Wesley Central Hall in Fratton, let’s hope that we keep some of them.

A proposal that all members, of all the member clubs be made honorary members of all the clubs in the Southern Federation was defeated at the recent meeting, due to objections raised by Portsmouth and most of the other clubs. It would have created some severe problems. in particular, communicating with the other club members would have meant sending out letters to all club members of all clubs, which to put it bluntly was ridiculous.

Owing to the unfortunate demise of the President Cecil Guy, Terry Lawson had taken over the role of President.

“Painting with light” by Ray Bruton of Southampton Camera Club.

Ray was acknowledged as being one of the finest slide workers in the country and this show was one of the finest slide shows that the club had seen for many a long day.

There wasn’t a spot or blemish of any sort on them. He would stress the importance of selecting the right light for the subject. Sometimes he would sit and wait for a couple of hours or more, just to get the effect that he wanted. At other times he would return months after when the light

was correct.

“A slide show with a difference” by Mr F Burridge.

(Remember, the slick audio visual shows that we have become accustomed to were still a long way off).

Mr Burridge had two Leitz Projectors, a manual fade in and out and a tape recorder.

He proceeded to give his show projecting the slides using the faders in time with the music from the tape recorders, as well as making the odd comment from time to time, and he never put a foot (or hand) wrong.

This years Kodak spectacular was held at the Wesley central Hall, but with a difference. The Portsmouth Camera Club had been asked to take the first 30 minutes. The old pack horse, Jimmy Hewes, “volunteered” showing a selection of members work to an audience exceeding 600, which proved to be very interesting. Mr Wilson’s contribution proved to be very disappointing indeed, his slides were very mediocre, totally lacking in imagination, which coupled by a somewhat dis-jointed commentary made it an event that was best forgotten. It was a pity because the previous spectacular had been such a success.

“This thing called Pictorialism” by Arthur Vinall from the Brighton Club.

Arthur was in the same class in prints as Ray Bruton was in slides. He showed initially, a collection of superb pictorial

prints, explaining how the effect was achieved. He then showed a selection of failures, showing where he had gone wrong and how he could put them right. Another good evening.

1965 A member who was very active photographically about this time was a Mr Cox (christian

... All of this was achieved with the aid of the control box.

name forgotten at present).

Coxy, as he was affectionately known was an extremely highly qualified engineer although slightly “eccentric”.

Inside his very fine workshop with the aid of his wonderful imagination, he would come up with some marvellous inventions. His enlarger and darkroom were masterpieces.

Coxy had a horizontal enlarger, which used 35mm negatives and when he used it he would sit at a control box.

He could move the enlarger up and down, move the print easel any way that he wanted it, up, down, rotate, sideways and tilt. The same with the negative carrier. The exposed paper was processed in dishes on a precisely heat controlled bench that rocked the dishes backwards and forwards, all to

a very careful timing.

He told us that he was working on an automatic paper carrier, from one dish to another, but had been unsuccessful to date!

For me the WACKIEST thing of all was how he held his negatives. He made a glass container, filled it with water, stuck in the negative and enlarged it through that. Mind you, we never saw a successful print from this process, but he was tremendous fun.

Annual Dinner. Those were the days! We would invite around 8 official guests and still make a profit. It was a formal affair though, with the top table being applauded in to their seats, several speeches and all that, but they were enjoyable. Ted Symmonds reported a profit of £5.00 on this years dinner.

This years Exhibition would be held at Cumberland House.

Jim Hewes reported that we could lose the venue as it was a Corporation sponsored venue, and if they realised that we were a private club, we could be out and a civic or national body given the space. Jim Hewes was asked to look into the matter and see what could be done.

The Exhibition catalogue cost had risen to £100 this year. Geoff Roberts offered to explore the possibilities of something cheaper. The cry every year was for the Stewards to sell catalogues and talk to visitors and this was becoming very important.

As a club we lose £8-14l0d (£8.74), in the year.

Subscriptions were raised to £1-10-0 (£1.50).

A suggestion was made that nomination forms should be sent to all members. After a lot of discussion the idea was not proceeded with for two reasons, the first was the expense, the second was that when it was tried in the past (for a number of years) we would only get one reply.

A sad item now. The loss of a staunch member, Brother Aldhem from St Johns College who was being posted away from Portsmouth. He will he very much missed through his very active membership, in particular behind the scenes.

“Big Prints’ by Kevin MacDonald courtesy of Johnsons Ltd. Kevin was a very extrovert character in the photographic world. A superb photographer with a wealth of knowledge which he imparted with great verve and obvious enjoyment.

“Stage Photography” by Houston Rogers FIBP, FRPS. courtesy of Kodak Ltd. I had lunch with Houston,

... the entire Royal Ballet

who was a little fat man with a very dry sense of humour and my ribs ached with laughing at

his anecdotes. He told us that without the stage managers etc, it would be impossible to operate. One picture was of the entire Royal Ballet on stage, it took three of them more than THREE hours to set up, then he quickly took two exposures, he never took more than two exposures on any setting.

Another fabulous evening.

One overriding thing about all these well known characters, was their approach. It was always light, spiced with anecdotes against themselves and others, when things went wrong.

1966 Over the last year or so, a question had been raised over the clubs very poor record on the battle front. Being the senior club in the area, it was rather embarrassing with the results that we had achieved.

On this particular evening, a rather heated discussion took place culminating in a new selection committee being chosen. This was a rather futile attempt to solve the problem, when really all that was needed was for more members to be forthcoming with their work. ln the event, it made very little difference.

A comical item of note. We attended a committee meeting at Terry Lawson’s house at 1 Oriel Road, North End. It being an extremely cold night, we all hung our heavy coats on Terry’s coat rack (board screwed to the wall). During the evening there was an almighty crash. Rushing out to a cloud of dust, we found

the rack had fallen of the wall, bringing down with it quite a lot of plaster. The meeting was closed and Terry’s wife organised us into a cleaning party.

With regard to the handing in date for exhibition entries, the Secretary reported that members were becoming very lax, with entries coming in right up to judgement day. He told the committee that there were one or two persistent offenders.

After a lively discussion, the Exhibition secretary was told not to accept any work after 9.30pm on the Thursday night handing in date. What happened next was that in the Exhibition Secretary’s absence, l was asked to collect in the entries. Sure enough on the night along came three regular offenders to hand in their work at 9. 50pm, just as we were leaving. I refused to accept them, which got me involved in a rather heated rapport with the offenders. As there were some committee members present I put the ball in their court, who fortunately backed me and said ‘sorry, too late, no dice’.

The next day, after some thought, I telephoned the three members, telling them that as I would not be handing the entries over until the following monday, if they brought them round to me I would accept them. Funny thing was, noone remembered it happening.

I had half expected to get a bit of a rollicking.

“Close-up” by Keith Edwards a part practical evening.

Keith arrived early with masses of equipment, showed examples of how to go about it then turned the members lose. He had five sets of lenses and would go around the room offering advice where he considered it necessary. A splendid evening.

agreed that we would put on a display of prints and slides.

Terry also reported that at the Festival committee meetings the emphasis was mainly on the Music and Drama sections.

They seemed to make the most noise about what they wanted whilst everyone else seemed to tag along.

“100 faces with a Mamiya” by J Lewinski courtesy of Ranks John was one of the leading exponents of the day in Studio Portraits. He showed more than 100, 16” by 20” black and white prints. His theme was to ‘keep it simple’. John seldom used more than three lights with 150 watt bulbs.

He has a serious manner about him, but his obvious love of his subject made it an exciting absorbing evening.

He explained carefully how he arranged his lights, all of which revolved around 4 set-ups, being varied to suit the sitter.

A point about colour prints in the monthly print competitions. Sammy Samson raised the matter of critics saying when they come to judge colour prints that they ‘did not feel competent to judge colour’. This was utter nonsense, as they were being asked to criticise the picture as a whole, after all we are surrounded by colour.

A discussion that reached boiling point arose, ending in an agreement that more encouragement should be given during club evenings on colourbalance and mounting etc.

“Kodak Spectacular” at the South Parade Pier.

Alfred Gregory gave a talk on Mountains. This was a very successful evening, with the Pier packed to capacity. The audience were shown many mountain scenes that were out of this world (or very nearly, at least you got your head in the clouds. Trevor)

During discussions at a committee meeting, it was decided to co-opt the syllabus secretary onto the committee as a full member for the remainder of the season. At a subsequent committee meeting Jinn Hewes, pointed out that we couldn’t do that as it was against club rules. A right old row broke out involving the RULES YET AGAIN. Eventually, by examining the rules, it was decided that the committee were entitled to co-opt anyone onto the committee and give them full voting powers, if they so wished. If the members wanted the rule changed then it could be done at the AGM.

1967 It was about this time that the Arts Council was formed and started making noises. Terry Lawson agreed to represent the Astronomical, Cine and Photographic Clubs at these meetings. At a meeting of the Arts Festival committee, it was

“Police Photography” with Detective Sergeant RD Ostler.

This was a superb evening in which we saw a lot of black and white Lantern Plates, some of them very gruesome indeed. The free and easy manner of the speaker, pointed out that he was only showing the club the sort of routine stuff, that made up Police work. He talked about using flash powder in the past, where in interior shots, he had to wait about half an hour for the smoke to clear.

He also pointed out that you never knew what was around the corner and that ones

... You all know now what not to do!

Lords and Masters expected miracles.

“Colour Printing” by Lt Comm L Joly. A practical demonstration.

This began as a very serious demonstration. Unfortunately things started to go wrong from the start, and the more Lance tried to correct things the worse it got. Lance had a very dry sense of humour and was completely unflappable.

The evening degenerated into one of the funniest that the club had had for a very long time, I can hear Lance’s final

sentence to this day. “Well you all know now, how NOT to do it”.

exactly how he obtained the finished result. He asked for questions from the floor as he went along and by jove, there 1968 were plenty. A magnificent evening from a delightful Up until now I haven’t unassuming worker. mentioned too many members, Charlie and I became firm but l do feel that this is an friends over the years but, like appropriate time to mention so many of the old hands, is no Terry Lawson. Terry was a longer with us. quiet unassuming sort of character, rather sensitive, but who beavered away in “Portraiture Lighting” by WJ the background, doing an Paul FRPS. enormous amount of “odds Bill travelled down from and ends”, that make up club London, bringing a model life. He was always willing to with him. The model was do practically anything that always a top London one. This cropped up. I do know that he evening was part lecture, part was very useful to me due to practical. all the sorts of things that crop After a short talk on lighting up and are dumped onto the and posing he got down to secretaries plate. the practical side of things.

Members produced there The President, Sid Woodriffe cameras, of which there had done some stirling work were a lot, and then saw during a rather difficult year.

Bill constantly on the move, In particular, the effort he put advising, adjusting, talking to in to securing the continued the model, he never stopped. existence of the Annual A wonderful evening by a Exhibition.

Master.

Kathy Anderson a very keen member left the club to go on a teacher exchange course for a year. She was greatly missed both as a member and as a photographer.

A visit by Charles Simcox ARPS from Chichester always ensured a full meeting. Charlie was a ‘dyed in the wool’ Landscape Photographer, who always brought along a pile of his prints for members to see. The feature that always made his evenings enjoyable was the rough prints that he made prior to making his “Masterpiece” and explaining

1969 Brian Doherty presented the committee with a draft of the new competition rules. As is usual with rules it started a very lively, heated discussion.

I cannot understand why rules should make people so prickly, but it always seemed to do so. Anyway when all the smoke cleared and a number of alterations were passed, the rules were accepted. lt was also around this time that a lot of rumours were flying around about the possibility of the Theatre Royal, Guildhall Walk being made available as

the clubs headquarters. What a fantastic venue! Alas, it was not to be so.

Two items that were aired quite vigorously at the AGM were the bad battle results and the fall in membership.

Both discussions had many views expressed, but nothing really useful in the way of suggestions to improve the situation. The selection committee also came in for some criticism, although it was pointed out that if the membership were not forthcoming with prints, a good selection could not be made.

A right furore took place over an un-named person who had been making arrangements for the Exhibition, without the knowledge of the Exhibition Secretary, who rightly was NOT AMUSED. As is usual with these affairs, it is left to the secretary to sort out.

I poked around and found out the facts and invited the culprit and the Exhibition Secretary around to my house, to sort things out, quietly and mentioning no names, no pack drill.

The use of non-photographic critics in the later rounds of the competition evoked a long discussion amongst members. It was agreed that they were not suitable and certainly were not helpful to members, only ‘dyed in the wool’ photographers should be used. Non-photographic critics could be used for the finals.

“Darkroom Technique” by RG Wilson of llford Ltd. This was not a sponsored evening, but from an employee of llford. George, a technician, was a very serious person with a dry sense of humour, who loved talking about his favourite subject. I had lunch with him and learnt that he had started with llfords as a boy and been with them for 37 years, all in the darkroom. He should know his subject. He brought a load of prints with him, nearly all in pairs, what he called his ‘before and after’ prints. It proved to be a superb evening with a lot of very sound advice being given. He answered questions as we went along, as well as destroying one or two of the myths that surround our hobby.

Brian Doherty raised a query, he had been asked by some club members to define the meaning of a set subject. He therefore asked the President to define for the club, the set subject on ‘LUST’.

The President said he would give it some thought and tell the members at the next meeting. The answer never materialised.

“Composition, Colour and Balance in pictures” by Willy Bartle.

Willy, as l have remarked before is an Art Master. This time he brought along an epidioscope, with which he projected onto large sheets of paper. Then in his own delightful, forthright manner, talked about composition, colour and balance. with a charcoal stick, he drew the lines around the picture through

the salient points on the paper, He switched of the lights and showed how the lines formed a satisfactory balance. Another very informative evening.

“Eye behind the News” with David Lolley.

David gave a light hearted look at the life of a local News photographer. One never knew what was around the corner.

In one day he photographed Royalty, a Junior School Fete and a fatal accident, then he was called out at night to photograph a fire. He said that when one was meeting Royalty at the Harbour Station early in the morning, when it was dark and dismal, he would have preferred to have been behind his desk in the warm.

The Editor would chase you to get results, having achieved them, you would then find your masterpiece was pushed off the page for some other story.

Another very difficult task was Fratton Park around 4.30pm on a dismal December day.

Then you had to pull out all the stops.

1970 Jim Hewes raised a point about competition judges. He stated emphatically that he didn’t think it fair to members to have non-photographic or artists for judges, even for the finals.

One or two had been tried and although they were interesting, they were not a lot of use to members requiring assistance. This started of a bit of a barney amongst committee members, ending with the chairman stopping it and asking for a vote. It was clearly

in favour of Jims opinion.

This year we lost a real stalwart in the club. Charles Fry, sadly passed away. He had been a very fine worker and being a chemist was a fund of knowledge. He will be missed by everyone. On a personal note, I shall miss Charlie as he has been a friend since our teens.

On the Battle front, we are still in the doldrums, even though there has been some fine work produced this year.

This was also the year that we became part of the Southsea Show, more about this later.

The Club projector, a Leitz Pravada, which was a top of the range model, came in for a lot of criticism. Members were told that as it had had continual use it was probably due for a 1000 mile service. the Chairman, John Moorey told the club, “let those that are not satisfied, bring along a projector for comparison”.

This years selection committee included three very volatile members, namely Jim Hewes, Ron Male and Ron Moore.

One couldn’t help feeling sorry for the other members of the committee, as by all accounts the meetings were very lively affairs.

“Portsmouth is not ugly” by Jonathon Timewell.

Memories of this evening are still very vivid. JT, as he was known, was a very lively speaker. He showed

a remarkable collection of buildings that, to say the least, were not items of beauty, but he presented them in such a way that brought out the best in them. He told members that he had spent a lot of time looking at the buildings, and deciding the best conditions to take them in. The whole project had taken two years, in different spells, and were to be used as education on lighting and conditions.

“Stage Photography for the Amateur” with Courtney Hoskings.

Courtney Hoskings was a member of two clubs, Southampton and when it was formed, Viewfinders. He showed the club a splendid collection of stage shots, mainly in black and white with the odd colour one thrown in. He explained in some detail the technicalities involved and gave a lot of advice about how to make an approach. Go to a local Dramatic Society and talk to them about what they want, attend a few rehearsals, the dress rehearsal is a must. Then talk to them again and arrange a photocall where everyone knows what’s what.

Courtney was a delight to listen to, with a fund of knowledge, who photographed everything.

The Southsea Show 1970 on...

This was the start of our Southsea Show Era, it covered a period of 5 years and was the finest group Club activity that I have ever been involved in.

It all started after the club was approached by the Corporation and Ron Cake and myself were

asked to find out a bit more about it. In the event Ron was unable to make the meeting, so I went on my tod.

I entered a large room at the Guildhall in which there were more than 50 people, all with folders and a lot to say, around a large table. The meeting started, with the chairman going to each group in turn, to find out what they required, and many others dismissing the needs of these groups as unnecessary. The meeting went on and on, but finally came to me as the representative of the Camera Club. One or two people were having there own discussions, which riled me a little, after all, I hadn’t said anything yet. So I stuck up my hand and said “Mr Chairman, if I may, before this committee talk about the Camera Club, I would like to make my clubs attitude clear” and I quote, “My club is not interested in any hole in the corner lark, if we cannot do it properly, we do not want to know”. There was a stunned silence, then the Chairman and said gleefully smiling all over his face “What are your requirements”. My reply was that unless we can be afforded an area for a hundred prints with adequate space to view them, we were not interested. He thanked me saying that he would be in touch. That’s it, I’ve blown it I thought. Oh well maybe another year.

A few days later I received a letter telling me that the club had been allocated a 60’ by 40’ Marquee and would I please let him know the other requirements of the club, as soon as possible. I well

remember Ron Cake’s face when he read the letter, his first remark parodied that of Laurel and Hardy “That’s another fine mess you’ve got us into”.

Bearing in mind that the Annual Exhibition would be on in St Johns College at the time, we mere both a bit flummaxed, but after talking about it, we came up with the idea of putting on panels of prints from individual members. Ron and I spent days running around the town, digging out prints from members and with the ideas of some of those members, we coped and put on a very successful exhibition, much to my relief I can tell you.

Putting everything up on the evening before the show was a lot of hard work. The council had erected a form of scaffolding around three sides of the inner tent onto which we had to fix first the boards and then the prints. At one end of the tent was a trade stall from Cross & Herberts (now Jessops), behind which we created a sort of “rest room”, where tea was on the brew all day long. It was amazing how the grapevine worked, and the number of different celebrities that would pop in to see how we were getting on, and suddenly spot the tea. We won four Gold medals as a top exhibit.

Thanks to the assistance given by a lot of club members, most of whom had taken leave from work, this turned out to be a very good exhibition, also bear in mind that we had one going on at St Johns College at the same time. It was decided to hold future annual exhibitions at the Southsea Show for

the foreseeable future, which developed into one of the finest combined actvities we’ve ever held. The Cake’s, The Moore’s, The Watt’s, Percy Clark and Brian Doherty

... a load of sand plus various cacti.

were among the twenty or so members who got stuck in. The Corporation always supplied some extra attraction, in the form of various travelling exhibitions. On one occasion, photographs of artefacts from the Tutankhamun were on display, the next thing I know, Ron Moore arrives with a load of sand plus various Cacti and other plants and had a whale of a time building Pyramids and sand dunes etc.

On another occasion we had a Victorian and Edwardian Exhibition. This was erected by the bloke that came with it. We couldn’t agree with the way that it was put up and upon approaching him with a suggestion were told “that’s how it has to be”. He hadn’t got out of the show ground before it was in pieces, and led by Ron Moore, assembled more to our liking. An added feature was a victorian tableau.

I acquired a shop window model lrom Debenhams, while Bina Taylor and Freda Clark dressed it up. The News were so taken with it that we had a

large photograph of it in the local paper.

During the show one year, we were suffering power cuts, with areas chosen at random. I arrived at the site on Thursday morning, to find the place in chaos, no electricity. There was a large Dairy contingent, refreshment booths and tents, all panicking. A few moments later Brian Doherty arrived, who at the time worked for the Electricity Company, and was also the Union area convenor.

I told him the problem and he asked for a phone. We want to the show secretary’s tent and amongst the rumpus asked to use the phone.

When asked “what for”, he replied “to try and get some juice back on”. The show staff looked stunned and said “please yourself, we’ve already tried”. To see and hear the next bit was really comical, it went a bit like this. Brian picked up the phone, got through and said “George, this is Brian, at Southsea, will you put the juice back on at the Southsea Show and leave it on for four days”.

Silence. Then, “OK, Thanks I owe you”.

Everything went quiet in the tent, then all of a sudden the lights went on, with thanks being given to Brian for whatever he did. I am sure he felt like God at that moment.

Anyway, they never found out who Brian was, but we got two free dinners out of it.

show was being restructured in content and they could no longer offer space to us.

1971 A meeting was held at the Avenue Hotel, Northern Parade, to view them as possible headquarters, by the committee. It was agreed that they seemed suitable, once the odd snag had been sorted out. The move had become necessary because Mrs Livesley had intimated that she would like the existing club room for something else. At a meeting held on February 27th, it was agreed that we proceed with negotiations to move to the Avenue Hotel.

Dora Cake told the committee that we had made a profit of £15 on the dinner.

A proposition was put forward to form a sub committee to produce the syllabus. It was finally agreed that whilst a sub committee could be available for advice, because of the nature of the beast, one person must have full control of it.

The secretary reported that after a somewhat protracted search, he had located the glass name plate of the club. After a short discussion it was agreed that as we had nowhere to store it in our quarters, we should find another storage place.

The secretary suggested that the museum authorities had a collection of glass signs and One year the tent burnt down they would probably like it. on the Wednesday, another one was erected in time for the In the eventuality, they were delighted to have it on the opening, but we all suffered understanding that we could from black feet that year.

That was in 1975, we received a borrow it for the odd occasion, letter soon after, saying that the if we wanted it. The name plate

was a splendid affair, being 5’ wide by 1’ long. with a bevelled edge and the clubs name in gold leaf.

for outside work. Seeing him hold a Leica in his enormous paw was quite a sight, I can tell you.

This year a volunteer was found to take my place. I wished him luck and offered any assistance that he wanted. I am made Honorary Vice President.

“Colour Magic” with Walter Brenner from Agfa Ltd. I recall this evening extremely well, it was as the title says ‘MAGIC’. The slides shown were out of this world. Walter showed firstly the original slide, then one or two showing variations of various treatments.

He gave a lot of advice to members. There was a section that I liked in particular, where he had solarised them. A truly MAGIC evening.

1972

Bowens Cameras. A member of their repair staff, talked to us about faults in cameras, and what people had done wrong.

His catalogue of the things that owners did wrong was amazing, all delivered in a very humerous manner. He also brought along a box full of horrors that members could pick up and examine. He said that the modern camera, if treated sensibly would last for years. It was the ill treatment through ignorance that provided a lot of work for them.

“Fashion Photography” by Reggie St Clair FRPS FIBP. I had lunch with Reggie, who was a very large man with a full beard and very jovial. A print talk with loads of 16” by 20” prints, all fashion shots, all fabulous quality. Reggie said that although all his studio work was done on the larger format, he did use a ‘toy’ Leica

This years Exhibition venue came in for a lot of discussion.

Jim Hewes told the committee that there was a possibility of us being offered space in the new Victoria Barracks City Museum. This was followed up and Mr Barton, the curator offered space on condition that he had complete control of what was hung, and how.

This caused, I remember, quite a lively interlude, ending with the decision that it was not acceptable.

... there was nothing worthy of the awards.

The exhibition judge, Jonathon Tinewell, caused a bit of a shock. He refused to award three cups, as in his estimation, there was nothing worthy to award them to. There was a bit of dissent, but Ron Moore stated that it was admirable of the judge to have the courage of his convictions. In his opinion, if the judge didn’t wish to, he was not bound to award a trophy.

This was the year that we finally left the Central association. It was felt that the association did not do a lot for provincial clubs, whilst the recently formed Southern Federation seemed to We had as a member around be going along nicely. this time a Mr Burgess, who always seemed to be surrounded by arguments. One Single membership subscription is increased to £2, of his troubles was an extremely this means that it has increased low flash point, which always seemed to be on the boil. Most by 19/- (95p) since 1946. of his troubles were of his own making, yet he could be a very likeable fellow on the few The Avenue Hotel didn’t occasions that he wasn’t on his provide coffee. Ron Moore, soapbox.

I believe acquired an urn from somewhere. The Cake’s, We get a donation of £15 this Ron and Dora, brought the year from the Corporation cups and other necessary bits towards putting on our and pieces, and thanks to exhibition. This came out of the the dedication of the female blue and was very welcome. members of the club, coffee was supplied to those that wanted it. I think that a sincere Dora Cake calls for a special thank you to all concerned was general meeting. It was to do with the amendment of rule 3a, owed by the club. as she did not think that the alteration was in accordance

with the general wishes of the members.

George Pollock visits the club with “A visual concert with music”.

This was in George’s early days. He used two projectors, hand changing the slides to suit the music. A fine evening, far removed from the complex programmes that he put on later, with all the advanced electronic equipment and abstract colour designs that he showed.

A miscellaneous collection amassed by Agfa Ltd, on their materials showing every conceivable subject, plus lots of variations. A very thought provoking evening if only for the subject matter which should give one or two members some ideas.

Vision 70. An Audio-Visual by the Audio group from the Wimborne club. This was a splendid evening with all the group taking part. It was an evening of intense activity, spiced by a lot of humour, and some superbly imaginative slides. There were bits and pieces of equipment, lots of wire, four speakers and everything went of smoothly.

1973 A special general meeting was called by a number of members about the constitution of the management committee. A rather stormy evening ensued ending with the Junior Vice President being included in running things. Prior to the meeting there had been a lot of hot air let loose. Ron Cake and myself kept quiet about our opinion, as he said “its best not

to get involved, just vote when required”. Sound advice.

Brian Doherty criticised members for not supporting battles. Enough noise was made on our poor showing, for example one battle there were 18 prints and 11 slides to choose from, whilst for the triple battle it was even less.

How on earth the selection committee was expected to select a worthwhile entry from those presented, was anybody’s guess.

RULES again. I am part of a committee (Brian Doherty, Ron Moore and me), to discuss the club rules. One of the problems with rules is that when they are altered slightly, anomalies are created that sometimes cause chaos.

The club exhibits a large panel at the Guildhall, when the Do it yourself and Food exhibition was held.

The Richard Tucker creative picture show.

This was one of the finest evenings that l have seen. A series of black and white and colour photographs, everyone of them truly creative. They were superb and in the main the ideas behind them were simple. The prints coupled with Richards very lively delivery kept everyone on their toes.

It was obvious of the interest shown by the multitude of questions asked.

“Three points of view” by a trio from Southampton. Ursula Jefferies, Courtney Hoskings and Gordon Bird.

Three totally dissimilar

outlooks on photography.

Ursula spends most of her time wading in pools and streams photographing all sorts of insects that fly and crawl about. Courtney who is an expert on stage photography, showed some superb colour and black and white stage shots, whilst Gordon (who is an artist) specialises in 20” by 16” black and white abstract prints. He showed many examples, all of superb quality 20” by 16” prints. but I doubt whether many members really appreciated what Gordon was trying to say.

This proved to be a very interesting evening.

Frank Clements gave fellow members a practical demonstration on how to put in clouds. Frank still uses an old horizontal enlarger, he wouldn’t use anything else.

Frank has given this talk to the club on a number of occasions over the years, and they all stick in my mind. He would keep the members in fits of laughter with his manner. He has a wonderfully blank way of answering questions that he doesn’t want to reply to. To the members, he is dear old Frank, well liked but a real eccentric that produces some remarkable pictures.

1974 The committee were asked for their recommendations for the set subject. This led to a long and fruitless discussion, which at times seemed to ramble on.

Eventually each committee member was asked to choose 4 subjects and submit them to the secretary. In the end the

result was even more confused than ever, with the result that the secretary did his own thing and chose his own subjects.

We hire a coach for the Triple Battle at Southampton. The coach was fully booked, not like today when, if 5 or 6 members go, it is a large number.

Dora Cake announces that the annual dinner has had to be cancelled due to lack of interest. This was not surprising really as there had been a gradual fall off over recent years.

Brother Lionel a very diligent photographic worker, left the club this year lor pastures new.

His educational commitments were to take him from us, leaving a great hole to fill.

In the selection of prints for battles, it was agreed that one or two selected members would be given a second voting card, on which they could record any prints that they considered suitable for possible selection.

This, as I recall worked quite well although I am not sure why it was dropped eventually.

... Hang up a blanket, put a lantern in front of it and sit and wait.

“Natural History” by Charlie Rowe of Chichester Camera Club.

Charlie is a very accomplished worker whose interests cover many fields of photography.

This evening was no exception to his other talks. A superb set of slides was shown, mainly of things that flew, mainly moths and butterflies. He said that he found butterflies much harder than moths to photograph. To photograph moths he would go out into the fields, hang up a blanket, put a lantern in front, set up the camera and flash, then sit and wait. An extremely interesting and instructive evening from a very competent worker.

A speaker that is always welcome at any club especially ours is Bill Wisden from Brighton. Bill is one of the finest photographers the club has ever seen, on this occasion, his talk was about ‘Recognition and Reaction’.

He produced a lot of pictures, asked members to look at them, identify them, and then asked for their reaction. He then explained his intentions on making the print, saying that he was amazed at the different reactions that he got to his work, and the diverse views that were expressed by the members of clubs. Bill expressed the view that in his opinion about 20% of members agreed with him.

When one spends a lot of time producing a masterpiece, very few members realise what you are trying to achieve.

Alistair Black, a member

had left the club, turning professional and going on to become one of the foremost dinghy sailing photographers in the world. He would be missed by the club as he was a very profound worker in the club.

A postal slide battle took place with the Ashbourne Photographic Society in Derbyshire. The way that this worked was for both clubs to send 20 slides to an agreed judge, who would in turn send the results to each club.

The two sets of slides were projected, with the judges comments, by each club as part of the syllabus. On this occasion we won the encounter by two marks.

It was agreed that it was not a worthwhile thing to pursue, as it was an awful lot of bother for a rather “disembodied” evening.

1975 The Southern Arts Council agree to make a grant to cover the expenses of our Annual Exhibition. The amount of trouble created in correspondence and phone calls made us wonder if it was worth it. It was just a one year thing.

During this year we moved to our new base at the Portsmouth Community Centre. We had a ‘Photographic Laboratory’, complete with a water system and central heating to use, a veritable palace. The lab was not for our exclusive use inasmuch as a choir had a couple of storage cupboards in the room. The move of all our ‘bits and pieces’ took a bit

of organising. Arranging the room was left to a couple of members including yours truly.

We now have a very nice steel locker that we acquired. We also have a modern colour enlarger, colour printing system and all the bits and pieces that one requires to print and develop films. Whilst transferring the clubs belongings, we disposed of 114 bottles of various noxious fluids. It was also noted that the two other enlargers were of very little use.

“Photographic techniques in Biology” with Dr Alderman of Portsmouth Polytechnic.

This proved to be an extremely interesting evening.

It concerned the effects of sea water on wood and the treatment. Members were shown enlargements in the order of, wait for it, 500,000 (half a million) times. The Doctor proved to be a very humerous speaker who offered to show members over his ‘factory’. A number of members took up his offer and were fascinated by the whole

a number of slides with him as well as a good supply of prints.

He explained the difficulties of dinghy racing. Quite often he used to dive in the water (in a wet suit (well it was after, anyway)), to get the effect that he wanted.

The slides were of superb quality, some of which showed Alistair in the water taking the photographs. Because of the way that the water was stirred up, it looked pretty rough or as one member told him ‘it looks bl@@?y dangerous, you must be mad ‘. The members could clearly see why Alistair was on his way to becoming the best.

“De Dion to Drag Strip” with M E Wane from Beaulieu Motor Museum.

This was a talk on the development of the Museum and how the cars were sometimes located. He explained that there was a fully trained staff plus a marvellous workshop to put very often, rusty heaps of machinery back to pristine condition. They had the largest heap of ‘come in handy bits and pieces’, all carefully labelled, that he had ever seen. That was without counting the technical data required, which was a separate department all to itself.

1976

... used to dive into the water.

experience.

“Since I went away”. Alistair Black on his break into the professional world of photography. Alistair brought

After some rather heated discussions it was agreed to increase the number of rounds of club competitions from five to six. One vote decided the issue.

The Chairman reported that

he had received an application from the Polytechnic Photographic Society, about possible affiliation with us. He outlined the verbal exchanges that had been made. The Pros and cons were discussed at some length until it was decided that the disadvantages were too great and the application was rejected.

Bill Taylor is elected to the Portsmouth Community Centre Advisory Council.

Sid Woodriffe and Ron Moore outlined their efforts to find a venue for the annual exhibition. They had made tentative enquiries with the central library, with possibility of it becoming a permanent thing. Space had been offered to the club to stage a small exhibition in conjunction with the Horticultural Society at their Autumn Show. Finally agreement was made to display the exhibition in the North Foyer of the Guildhall.

This produced a marvellous exhibition that was marred by the loss of a print belonging to ‘Gosport Dave’. Dave, a very volatile character was not at all amused. He wrote to the Council about it demanding £10 compensation, in the end accepting 10/- (50p).

“Thinking with my eyes” by John McGovern courtesy of AGFA Ltd. This proved to be a very interesting evening. John was a raconteur, who laced his talk with some very witty stories.

His theme was ‘let your eyes guide your fingers’, not the other way round, which so often is the case. Where a little bit of looking saved hours of

hard work in the darkroom. So many pictures that come up for judging, come under the heading of ‘IF 0NLY?’ Mind you whether the members take it to heart is another matter.

“My style of portraiture” by Frank Clements ARPS Frank has his own particular way of working. He will take a tree from somewhere, and from his ‘stock’ of cloud negatives, will make some marvellous tree/cloud portraits. The why’s and wherefore’s were explained

by Frank in his own inimitable manner. As is usual when a club member gives a talk, many questions are asked of his techniques. Frank has a knack of rousing people from their seats.

1977 At last after months of anxiety re an annual exhibition venue. thanks to the efforts of Sid Woodriffe and Ron Moore, the problem has been solved for the foreseeable future. In consultation with Mrs Guy, the Head Librarian, it had been agreed to stage the annual exhibition at the Central Library, probably during the last two weeks of April. This was a great relief to everyone after all the uncertainty in previous years.

The Club had agreed to host a convention for the Southern Federation. Lily Male, Ron Moore and Bill Taylor were appointed to organise things locally. It is amazing how much time is spent in running around, making phone calls and all the other bits and bobs

that crop up. Still it was a great success on the night.

The competition rules were raised again. as is usual when the subject of rules is brought up, it evokes a lot of rhetoric.

The snag with changing a rule in a set, is that invariably, when you change one rule it clashes with another which in turn leads to confusion and problems.

It was decided to appoint a selection committee of four members to select suitable prints and slides for making up club entries to future exhibitions in the area.

Lily Male offered to do the administration work.

In practice it worked quite well for a while, but lapsed because of lack of interest amongst the members.

For the Christmas party, it was decided to ask members to bring along an assortment of food and liquid refreshment. It was hoped that as a number of members indulged in the art of wine making that they would be kind enough to bring along one or two bottles for members to sample.

... he had to play the gallant Knight and save a maiden in distress.

“Dragonflies in the New Forest” with Ursula Jefferies and Gordon Bird.

The members saw a superb collection of colour slides, not only of dragonflies but all sorts of insects and grubs.

Ursula told members that taking dragonflies and their ilk, involved standing in water up to your knees or further for sometimes an hour or more, whilst Gordon searched around for the landlocked ones! He told members that at his age he was past the age of paddling by a lot of years. He admired Ursula for her dedication but it was not for him, although he did get wet once. Ursula “trod” in a hole and he had to play the gallant knight to save the maiden in distress.

Lynn Brewer, the owner of a local colour laboratory hosted a colour printing seminar. An invitation to local clubs ensured that there was a packed club room for the evening. Although colour printing is not one of my interests, this proved to be a splendid evening. Lynn had the ability to make everything sound so easy. So easy in fact, that quite a number of members and visitors said that they were going to have a go.

“My Photography” by Charles Rowe of Chichester Camera Club.

Charley is one of the thinking photographers. He told the club that, for other than the casual, run of the mill stuff, his serious work he thinks about and tries to get it right at the taking time, therefore making his life easier in the darkroom.

What the members saw was a

superb set of black and white photographs covering a wide range of subjects. Charley explained how the print was achieved in the darkroom, all delivered in his very quiet casual self.

1978 David Moors showed the club an electronic fade and change ‘gadget’ for use with two projectors in audio visual shows. It seemed a very useful gadget and David offered to construct one for the club, so long as the club paid for the materials, which worked out at about £10. The club accepted the offer enthusiastically.

David started the construction but before he could finish it he was posted to Brussels by his employers. Ron Male offered to complete it and having done so it was used for many years.

Arnold Bradley and myself take on organising the summer syllabus. Arnold informed the committee that it would be our aim to find places of photographic interest in and around the City. One of the places that proved to be quite successful was on the top floor of the Tricom carpark where a number of aerial shots of the city were taken.

Pete Chambers (Senior Vice President), hit on a novel way of producing the annual syllabus. A committee of three would draw on the experience of previous secretaries and the members wishes. Although it sounded a good idea, in practice it proved impracticable and was abandoned.

“Hints, Tips and Gadgets”.

This evening put on by members for the members was truly amazing, with at times the whole gathering collapsed in merriment. Everyone was surprised at some of the ideas that members had come up with. Fred Goldsmith had quite a number of wierd and wonderful gadgets, which, with Freds humerous approach was the highlight of the evening.

As one member said to me afterwards ‘Freds a wonderful lad, full of humour and enthusiasm, but seldom produces anything, a good member nevertheless’.

One evening that sticks in my mind was a practical evening.

Members were told to bring their cameras, but the subject was kept very secret. On the evening the subject was a ‘Pop Group’. The most memorable part of the evening was when the Warden, Ethel Stockdale came in saying that the noise was putting off a choir singing in the main hall. The problem was that the group couldn’t pose unless they were actually playing their music with the wick turned right up.

I do know that the evening caused some comment at the next advisory meeting. The funny thing was though, there were not many moans, more praise for bringing a bit of life into the centre!

An Audio Visual evening by Hayling Camera Club.

This was a group of 6 members calling themselves “Colourama”.

Now remember that this was before the days of the sophisticated equipment used today, when one person comes along, plugs in a few leads, switches on and sits down.

This was the days of manual change, taped music, lots of wires all over the place and everyone doing something, changing places every now and then so that everyone had the difficult bits in turn.

There were no stands for two projectors available so you had to construct your own locally.

You know, somehow, those evenings were more enjoyable than they are today, if only for the enthusiasm of the people involved in working together.

1979 Ron Male reported that the “Moors” gadget had been completed successfully and that it would be ready to use at the coming slide/tape twin projector evening. This gadget would enable the slides to be moved more in ‘sync’ with each other. The gadget was used successfully for a number of years until progress overtook it with the more advanced equipment arriving on the scene.

The Battle programme was reasonable this year. On the success side we won the triple battle against Southampton and Winchester, beat Salisbury in a challenge match, progressed as far as the third round of the Southern Photographic Federation’s Knock-Out Competition, losing to Chichester. it’s a faint hope that the success will continue, if past

years are anything to go by, let’s hope so!

Lighting for the prints when being at the monthly competitions, came in for some strong criticism at the Annual General Meeting. A lot of rhetoric was expounded. What they meant was, that it could be better! it is worth noting that several of the members who visit other clubs, judging and talking, said that they had never seen a really satisfactory system, it would appear to be a universal problem. As is usually the case, the committee were instructed to look into the matter and come up with a solution.

The failure of the club to provide entries for the Southern Photographic Federation Knock-Out Competition and Exhibition sparked off a right old rumpus with some harsh words flying around. Ron Moore stated that it was not part of the competition secretaries duties to obtain prints and select them and never had been, that part of the matter was down to the committee.

It was further noted by the selection committee that if the members did not support the club by supplying work to choose from, the club could not compete. In other words the problem was at grass roots level, the members.

Harry Newman from the Polytechnic on ‘Polarized Light’.

This was a fascinating talk that cleared a lot of cobwebs

for the members on what is an essential ‘tool’ for photographers to use. Harry went into the subject in some detail pausing now and then to make sure that the members were clear about it all. From the questions asked there was no doubt of the obvious interest that was aroused by the subject.

No doubt we shall see a lot of work in the future where polarizers have been used!

Two members of the Hampshire Fire Brigade

wouldn’t allow photographs to be taken). The pictures part print, part slide, illustrated how versatile the brigade had to be.

Demonstration of Colour Printing by Durst, courtesy of Eumig Ltd. This was a technical demonstration on how to go about producing a colour print. it was very interesting, clear and concise, showing the various effects of the colour filters. An excellent talk that must have cleared the air for those members who were on the brink of “having a go”.

Plenty of literature, but NO samples.

1980

... and toes stuck up taps.

photographic department, Messrs. Cook and Head, gave an insight into their work with the brigade. Two things that spring to mind when I think about them are the fact that they were a right pair of comedians who kept the club in a constant state of laughter and of course the superb, though sometimes tragic pictures that they showed us. They showed pictures of the difficulties and at times dangerous parts of the job. Apart from fighting fires, members of the brigade had to be a jack of all trades. They tackled a legion of problems, car accidents, cats up trees and toes stuck up taps (yes, that’s right. Though modesty

The committee move the date of the Annual Dinner to coincide with the presentation of the exhibition awards. It was agreed by the committee to be an essential move, in view of the change from a Dinner to a Buffet.

At the Annual General Meeting, Mr Gibson-Ford complained about the competition rules for prints.

This complaint met with the usual derision from members. some of whom got quite hot under the collar. As has happened in the past nothing conclusive came from the discussions and it was left to the committee to try and sort out an amicable solution.

The lethargic attitude of members in making work available to the selection committee was mentioned, this evoked a long discussion with many points being raised, ending with the suggestion that

a special sticker be printed for use in the various competitions.

As stickers were fine for prints but not for slides the committee were asked to try and sort out some form of a similar scheme for slides.

“Care and maintenance of your equipment” by Ken Crosby.

Ken is a professional repair engineer of photographic equipment, running his own business. He had a very forthright manner and told members quite bluntly that a lot of troubles were caused by the owners own carelessness.

He mentioned two outstanding examples. First, the idiot who went onto the seafront in very rough weather to photograph the waves, sticks the camera back in the bag without cleaning it, then brings it in for repair in a shockingly corroded state and gets quite annoyed when told it is scrap. The other one involved leaving the camera beside him on a soft sandy beach (Hayling Island), in the full sunlight, then taking it into the shop crying his eyes out because it won’t work. Ken said he even had one camera that had fallen about 500feet down Snowdon, was uninsured, asked to repair it, and the guy fainted when told the cost. Expensive!!!

“Naval Photography” by Wren Pat Appleton.

Pat was a delightful young lady with a sparkling humour. She had a very extensive knowledge of photography. From the prints shown to the club, it was obvious from the range of subjects shown, that she was a photographer first and a young lady second. Pat said that a sense of humour was essential

in what was a predominantly male world.

1981 Fred Goldsmith, told members at the Annual General Meeting that the year had been a mixed bag as regards the battle results.

We had lost the Triple and Chichester battles, won the Southern Federation Slide Shield and were in the Print finals, which we narrowly lost.

The Club subscription now comes in ‘two parts’, the Club membership and the Community Centres charges.

The Syllabus Secretary told the members that as the cost of speakers was rising all the time, it would be necessary to increase the subscriptions.

Without this increase it would be very difficult to provide an acceptable programme.

It was agreed that the subscription should be raised to £3 from the start of the new season.

It was around this time that Ron Moore provided some ‘entertainment’ for the Club’s christmas party.

This ‘entertainment’ went on for several years. In the first instance, the cast were the ‘Moores’ and the ‘Males’, later to become the ‘Moores and Wood Show’ (More Wood Missus.

Sorry, Trevor).

The playlets took the form of Photographic ‘mickey taking’, which were extremely well organised, tremendously funny and highly entertaining. There was no doubt in anyones mind that Ron’s fertile imagination, aided and abetted by the others, produced what can only be described as superb comedy plays.

Ron Moore was made an Honorary Vice President in recognition of his long service to the Club.

The Southern Photographic Federation approached the Club with regard to replacing the Portsmouth Plaque. It had been around for many years and was now looking very tired. The committee agreed to replace the Plaque and a new one was purchased for the sum of £20, and presented to the Federation.

A discussion took place about whether to purchase controlled heating mounting equipment at a cost of £150. The committee discussed this at great length, eventually deciding against it for two reasons. Firstly, many club members would not benefit from it and secondly, using it did require a fair bit of experience, without which. could cause a lot of problems with spoiled prints and mounts not forgetting someone getting burnt.

Bob Wildman with the “American West”.

The club were very lucky to obtain Bob. He was only over from the States on a relatively short visit. Bob showed members a set of colour slides that were second to none, which showed why Bob is one of the leading Photographers back home. His commentary was delivered in what can only be described as a very dry humour. His slides were of the Old West, sights of famous Indian battles, all the while

spiced with anecdotes of things that had happened to him.

Such as being stalked by a big cat (who was not approaching to be patted), being chased by wild cattle and being escorted off an Indian Reservation by Indian Police. A very interesting evening on a part of the world steeped in Folk Lore.

“Sailing Ships” by Alistair Black.

Alistair proved to be a very elusive person to get hold of. It took several months to confirm that he would be making the lecture. On the evening of the lecture he told members that he had just returned from Japan.

The world was his oyster and never knew where he would be from day to day. A remarkable set of sailing pictures were seen by members. it was obvious to see why Alistair was by new a world famous photographer in the sailing fraternity. Many of his shots were taken at sea level. some of which he took after jumping into the water.

“Winners All” by Bill Glue of Chichester Cine Club.

Bill, with his wife as the ‘Engineer’ working things, showed the club a series of superb cine films. The work of the club, showed a control of the media, par excellence.

There were overseas films, films taken in the back garden and models combined with the real thing, which members were unable to see until it was pointed out to them.

Bill asked members whether he should show a film on Bull fighting in Spain. He did not care for the subject himself, but it was taken to show the cruelty that took place. The members agreed to see the film,

which was watched in complete silence, as Bill showed the full horror of a Bull fight. This must rate as one of the most goriest evenings the club has ever had.

1982 The President, Ray Taylor, told members that he had enjoyed his year in office, in spite of him being a “travelling man’ during the week. Thanks to a very willing committee, any hitches that arose were quickly solved, he was very grateful for that help. He told members that we had been quite successful in the Southern Photographic Federation battles this year with the prints. We had won the league, got through the semifinal, and just beaten in the final. In his opinion we “wuz robbed”.

Once again the subject of rules came up at the AGM. Every time the rules are brought up, so a lot of hot air is expended.

It is probably the only time that everyone has an opinion which they must air. as is usually the case the committee have to try and sort out the tangle at the end of the day.

It was hoped to arrange for Colin Garret the steam train enthusiast to show his ‘World of Steam’ in the big hall, we are only waiting on dates from Colin’s Secretary.

The purchase of a new club projector with a 150mm lens was discussed at great length.

It was eventually decided that a Zeiss lkon IR2500 model with a 150mm lens be purchased, subject to a satisfactory demonstration at the clubroom.

The projector would cost around £250, and would

replace the ‘Rollie’s’ for general club use.

Ray Taylor had arranged a slide competition with the Spectrum Slide Club in Guernsey. Bill Taylor was given the task to organise it. The judge for the occasion was Charley Rowe from Chichester.

A miracle occurred, in that we thoroughly trounced the Channel Island Club. There

... unable to change films underwater ..

was supposed to be a return match the following season but it never took place. Were we feared that much. I doubt it.

“Sub Aqua Photography” by Gavin Anthony from Gosport.

Gavin proved to be a most engaging character with a wonderful gift of understatement. Not only did he bring his slides, but an enormous amount of equipment was laid out for the club members to look at. In the first half of the evening he explained the various functions of his equipment. One problem was being unable to change film underwater!

During the second half of the evening, Gavin showed his slides, a superb set, taken all over the world. Wherever

there were attractive things to photograph, Gavin appeared to have been there. He explained that although the waters around the British Isles did not have the variety as in other parts of the world, there was still a wealth of marine life to photograph.

1983

Ron Hall and Bill Taylor offer the lantern show to other clubs. It was agreed to ask for £5 as a donation to swell our clubs funds. This was a very successful enterprise, with many clubs in the area taking up the offer. not just “My Man in Mexico” by Edwin photographic clubs.

Appleton FRPS Edwin told the members that For a number of years, showing his talk was the result of a the slides at the exhibition competition run by Agfa. A had been a problem. It was fortnights holiday in Mexico, not really worth trying to alter all expenses paid, all materials the old lantern light box, so supplied, even lenses at Agfa’s Stuart Wood, Bill Taylor and expense. What members saw Ron Moore, played around was a collection of 16” by 20” with the library’s ‘Tower’ colour prints, which covered for slide displays, with their many facets of Mexican life. permission. Stuart completely Agfa also sent a young lad stripped and rebuilt the thing along as an assistant, to gain and found that by raising experience in his own right. A the projector platform it was remark made by Edwin, and possible to move the slides fully still remembered by all that both horizontaly and verticaly. were there, was ‘lt’s great fun Members agreed to try it out doing photography at someone for the 1984 exhibition. else’s expense’.

This year we had a ‘half share” “Past pictures” by Courtney in the triple battle shield. This Hoskins. makes a change for us even to Courtney (now deceased) draw, as we are normally the was a long serving member supporting cast! of Southampton Camera Club and also a member of The club purchased the new Viewfinders Club. He told projector as agreed. It came in members that he had about a splendid case with two lenses, 800 old club members prints. the standard lens and a 150mm He had transferred a number lens. Members agreed that of these onto slides and that it was a satisfactory piece of every slide shown tonight had equipment and extremely nice received either nationwide to have a projector at the rear or worldwide recognition in of the room. the exhibiting world. What members saw were 300 At the AGM, Mrs Bina Taylor outstanding examples of club told the members that the work, showing very clearly highlight of the year was the why Southampton were once evening spent celebrating Percy one of the leading clubs in Clark’s 50 years as a member. lt photography. had been one hell of a problem keeping it from Percy and

arranging for his family to be there. One of the members made a magnificent cake for the occasion. Percy was speechless when he was presented with the silver plaque which members were to compete for at the annual exhibition.

November saw the Colin Garrett “Puffer Train Show’, in the big hall. This was run jointly by the club and the centre. A packed hall sat enthralled by the slides from all over the world depicting the ever popular ‘Choo Choo’.

“An Americans first year in Britain” by Richard Mueller.

Dick was a very likeable person who was also a first class photographer. He had brought a collection of his prints, which were superb. He had a profound knowledge of photography. The evening was of London, as he and his daughter saw it. His view of London was very different to ours. He showed a lot of small details that we would just pass. One thing that obviously fascinated him were the chimneys, for among the 200 plus slides that he showed were many very ornate examples. A fascinating look at our capital through very different eyes.

“Cibachrome Prints” by Edwin Appleton FRPS. Edwin didn’t have many prints with him, but those that he had were absolutely first class.

His commentary, delivered in his bright and breezy manner, made the evening pass so quickly and left everyone wanting more. An eyeopener of an evening by a very likeable photographer.

“High Flying” by Mike Jerram an Aviation Photographer and Writer.

This was an evening with a difference. The mind boggled at some of the pictures. He talked of hanging out of a helicopter, using a 35mm camera with a long lens, fast film using a lot of rolls of film on motor drive.

One shot that is remembered vividly, is of a phantom fighter, coming in low and shooting over a hill. He was in touch with the pilot and kept saying ‘closer, closer’, with him right in the flight path! Mike told members that his worst moments were waiting for the film to be returned. The cost of setting these shots up are very high indeed and the relief when he opened up a packet and found that he had been successful was tremendous.

1984 The club had a very successful year financially, with the profit of £65 from the Colin Grrett Steam Train show, £90 from the auction and fees from the “magic lantern” shows around the clubs, made it one of the best years money wise for a long time.

The print rules were the subject of this years rules changes argument. Talking amongst the other federation clubs, we are not unique in the rows about rules. Other clubs have the same slanging matches that we have, for the same reasons. I don’t suppose there will ever be a satisfied club member where club rules are involved and these arguments will rage for evermore.

This was the year when the revitalised projection tower broke down at the exhibition, someone stole the mirror.

Everyone agreed that to show the slides at the exhibition was an enormous problem.

This was solved for several years by borrowing the system used by the Gosport Camera Club. Dave Barton who had assembled it loaned it to us on the understanding that a donation was made to Gosport CC funds. This machine worked fine, having a carousel slide carrier, UNLESS some bright spark (there are a few) (still), put in any thick slides or masked on the outside, which then made the machine jam.

This caused great havoc, still, never mind, its fun!

Although the Centenary of the club has been looming ever closer, this was the first time that action was taken and a small committee was set up to start the ball rolling.

This committee consisted of Ron Hall, Ron Moore and Stuart Wood. Once started the ball kept rolling, with more members being seconded as required.

Sid Shaw was flexing his muscles on how he wanted the exhibition staged. It was his opinion that too many diplomas had been awarded in recent years and that he felt 10% of the entry and no more should get diplomas.

“Focus on Birds” by Gordon Lansbury FRPS. This was a great ornithological evening with a lot of superb bird shots, taken in all sorts of conditions that must have caused Gordon a lot of discomfort and at times risk of being hurt, either by the terrain or the birds getting nasty. On one occasion he saw a particular bird landing on a road and using a motor drive ran of 36 exposures, just like that, getting just one acceptable slide. He told members how much film he used in a week, which was quite staggering.

The new exhibition secretary,

“Memories” by Courtney Hoskins.

This was a return visit of Courtney’s, this time with his own work. One of Courtney’s things is photographing amateur dramatics and on this evening he excelled himself by showing a superb collection of stage prints covering the whole spectrum, groups, singles and action shots. All showing first class attention to detail.

Courtney was constantly giving details of how and where he took them. He told members that the dress rehearsal was the best time to take the shots plus a photocall.

... the birds getting nasty.

“Old Moores Almanack” by Bob Moore.

This was another highlight of this season. Bob is one of the characters in the game, a smashing ‘picture taker’. As Bob said ‘its better to get it right at the beginning than feeling sorry for yourself or scratching around in the darkroom trying to make something out of nothing’.

This time Bob showed slides and a superb set they were too.

The slides coupled with Bobs delightful commentary made it an evening to remember.

1985 Sid Shaw and Bill Taylor erect a print display rail around the walls of room 4 at the community centre. The project looked simple enough but it did involve quite a lot of discussion and experimentation. we then had to approach the centre for permission to carry it out. All this took time. but when all the dust had settled. it took two hours to complete.

Once again the club is playing around with the competition rules. It’s quite amazing really, all through the history of the club, members are talking about or changing some rule or another. I suppose it is because certain members are not happy unless they are changing things.

“Close up photography and how to do it!” by Betty and Tony Rackham.

This husband and wife team have been to the club on numerous occasions and still leave members wanting more.

They have a repartee between them that only true partners can have. They feed each other lines all the time. They showed a group of slides at a time and then talked about them.

They said that if it grew, flew or crawled and was also small they photographed it. This likeable couple gave a wealth of information on close up work that must have been very inspiring to those wishing to take it up. They produced all their work from the New Forest, saying there was no need to go any further.

“Printing in Clouds” by Frank Clements.

Frank is in a class of his own. he has a wonderful slow delivery all of his own. He showed a marvellous collection of trees and clouds. It was truly amazing how Frank had used the same clouds in different prints, but, by selection of the piece of cloud and careful printing, it was not readily apparent! I must say Frank made it all seem so easy, I have printed the odd cloud now and then and found it quite difficult.

“Judge for yourself” by Ian Platt.

This was a typical Ian Platt evening. He is a photographer bursting with enthusiasm and a very ebullient character, never stops. He showed a series of wonderful pictures. He would ask from time to time what people thought of them. It turned out to be a very lively enjoyable evening indeed.

Ian told the club that his idea was to give people a better appreciation of photography when they looked at them.

1986 After some discussion, the committee decided to purchase THREE more trophies to be used for the best aggregate

score in the monthly competitions. Several views were raised in that there was an imbalance of trophies for prints and slides. This resulted eventually in the sorting out of the trophies to give a more even balance between prints and slides. This sort out also meant that some of the older trophies could be retired although they have been retained in the Club archives.

The Centenary committee informed the committee that the costs of the Centenary had been estimated at £622 which would include a handbook.

It was agreed to allow a percentage of entries from previous exhibitions to be submitted for the Centenary Exhibition. Members were also asked to submit designs for a special print ‘sticker’ for use in the Exhibition.

It was also agreed to appoint an assistant secretary to assist in the Centenary in view of the extra work load that it had put on the Secretary.

February 6th 1986 “Images on Ilford” by Bill Wisden courtesy of Ilford Ltd. Bill is an old friend of the Club. He has been coming to the Club for many years and is a photographer ‘par excellence’. The members tonight saw a selection of Bill’s prints, all of which were first class. That, coupled with Bill’s accompanying commentary made for a really interesting evening. The thing about Bill Wisden is that he is willing to give advice and answer questions in a helpful manner, which some other speakers are

loathe to do.

The following week saw another well known ‘bod’, in the form of Bob Moore from Jessops. His talk was titled ‘Liquid’, which as the name implies was all about water and other liquids. This was a slide evening and when put together with Bob’s extrovert manner made a great night out for everyone. The room was full with many visitors from other clubs (isn’t it great that some speakers command such respect from fellow photographers, it’s as though they have got their own goupies), arriving for the occasion. The slides were of superb quality, both in colour and content. There is no doubt that Bob is among the top flight of image makers, who put photography into the art

... cloud formations at certain distances from the ground.

context.

December 11th 1986 “Photography and the Weather”

by Geoffrey Jefferson.

A very interesting talk was given by Geoffrey who is a weather man by profession. His comments on cloud formations and their relationship to the climate were very, very, enlightening, in particular his comments on the height of various cloud formations only

occurring at certain distances from the grounds surface.

It made one realise that the printing in of clouds was not as easy as all that, seeing that it was important to get the right clouds to suit the conditions on the ground.

1987 CENTENARY YEAR Over the past two years it has become apparent that the forthcoming centenary is becoming increasingly important, so we decided to devote the last year of the history to that.

Although only a small committee control things, an increasing number of members are becoming involved, my section being the Club History. Typical of the many problems that arise was the one involving me. There was just too much information for the handbook, this was solved by decreasing the size of the text so that eleven more lines could be fitted on a page. That is why this History has finally emerged, as I had so much information that needed to be kept in some sort of order.

Following are the minutes of the Centenary Committee running up to the Centenary Exhibition itself. These show some of the many members who were involved, but does not take into, account the merry band of club members who were doing the fetching and carrying. Believe me both the Federation Final and the Exhibition were veritable hives of activities, all without any snags, in the end.

Thanks to the efforts of all the members of the Club the whole Centenary year was a great success.

MINUTES OF CENTENARY COMMITTEE TUESDAY 8 DECEMBER 1987 Those present: John Markwell, Ron Hall, George Lack, Stuart Wood and Ron Moore.

The minutes of the last meeting were agreed.

1. Actions arising 1.1 Community Centre.

Microphone and speakers evaluated.

Spotlights available, can be set up on the Saturday. 10ft x 10ft screen is available, which can be angled. Projector requires 150mm lens and 250w lamp.

Projectionist required.

1.2. Sponsorship.

Agfa willing to pay £30 - £50.

Patterson willing to pay £40 for A5 print.

Kodak willing to pay whole page £50 after seeing magazine.

Back page to be offered to Kodak, inside front cover to one other; third to separate prints and slides.

Exhibition handbook and sample catalogue to be sent out

by Ron Hall Action Replies to be requested by 31 Jan 1988.

1.3. Evening News Send copy of magazine in January Ron Hall Action 2. Centenary Handbook Tabled and accepted. will be issued to members Thursday 10 Dec 1987.

3. Exhibition Stamp Two types produced, non adhesive and sticky. Passed to Ron Moore.

8. Dummy Run in Library Arrange visit with John Thorne for early January. Ron Hall Action

4. Evening News Records Bill Taylor has found original reference to formation of Club.

He is obtaining Copies.

9. Attendance byMembership Publish list of names and invite indication of invited guests.

John Markwell Action

5. Exhibition Judggs Still to be approached for panel of prints. Ron Hall Action

10. A.O.B. 10.1. One panel of 3 prints to be hung in memory of Sid Shaw - add words by 6. Paying Guests Madeliene Burden.

Guests on the evening of the 10.2. Exhibition Awards - open Exhibition to be charged £3.50. sections, up to one third of Organise tickets. Copies of the entries can be prints or slides Exhibition Magazine to be set (previously exhibited in PCC aside for Lord Mayor: both exhibitions).

Judges; Agfa: Kodak: Patterson; Mounts must be to an Evening News; S Woodriffe; R acceptable exhibition standard.

Bone; Librarian.

All displayed work will be Price of Magazine to those eligible for all this years awards. joining after October 1987 or 10.3. Practical Photography guest wishing to own one must response to Editor reference pay £1.50. club panel from Centenary Exhibition to be written by Ron 7. Costings Hall Action Exhibition Magazine £100.00 11. Date of next meeting Buffet £3.50 To be arranged by Ron Hall in £420.00 consultation with John Thorne.

(Provisional)Hire of Library £40.00 That, my friends, is the minutes Wine (20 bottles) from one of the last Centenary £40.00 Committee meetings. It was all Sub Total so professionally done. £600.00 Judges Fees (March) This is also the final chapter of £50.00 the first one hundred years of Judges Expenses Portsmouth Camera Club, long £50.00 may it continue.

Sub Total £700.00 Bouquets (2) £12.00 Centenary Buffet (200 @ £1.50) £300.00 Total £1012.00

... All done! The first 100 years.

The History of the Portsmouth Camera Club The First Chapter 1988 on

The Next Six Years Being the continuing history of the Portsmouth Camera Club from I988 to I993 compiled by Mick Cooper 1988 This year saw the culmination of the clubs Centenary Activties.

From April 25 to May 13, the Annual Exhibition took place at the Central Library in Guildhall Square. It was opened in the evening by the Lord Mayor of Portsmouth, Mr Jim Lodge. Several past members were invited, notably Ron Bone, Norman Kelsey and Sid Woodriffe, all of whom had previously held senior positions within the Club.

The photographer from the ‘NEWS’, Mike Scaddan, was another past member.

The occasion was somewhat marred by the sudden death of the President, Jim Shaw, leaving the Senior Vice President to take over as President, and John Markwell who had been organising the centenary activities, took over the organisation of the exhibition.

The whole of the celebrations went very smoothly. Following is a list of the Trophy winners for this milestone in the Clubs history.

The Hampshire Hundred Cup: Best print in Exhibition: A J ‘Sammy’ Samson.

The John Deacon Cup: Best Pictorial Print: Ron H Moore.

The Frank J Privett Cup: Best Portrait Print: A J Samson.

The Percy Clarke Plate: Best Maritime Print: Ivor

Wellbalove.

The Club Trophy: Best Abstract Print or Slide: Not awarded.

The Coronation Cup: Best Slide in Exhibition: Lee Weatherley.

The Centenary Cup: Best Landscape: Keith Sawyer.

The Frank Roberts Plate: Best Pictorial Slide: Ron N Moore.

The Woodriffe Cup: Best Portrait Slide: Keith Sawyer.

May 12th 1988 Mrs Madeline Burden, the secretary stood down as she and her husband, Derek (who had produced the summer syllabus for several years), were about to move to Yorkshire.

The Treasurer, Mrs Valerie Wood, announced that the membership stood at 57, and that the bank account currently held £1555.49. the motion to increase the subscription ice by 50p was carried.

Officers elected were :President, George Lack; Senior Vice President, Ron Hall; Junior Vice President, Ted Winterford: Secretary, Peter Downer; Treasurer, Keith Gibbs; General Committee: Messrs. Ray Taylor, Ron Hildersley, Ernie Heathman, Trevor Muston and David Hunt; Auditors, Mr & Mrs S Wood; Syllabus Secretary, Ron Hall & Ron Moore; Print Comp. Sec., Ted Winterford; Slide Comp. Sec., Mick Cooper: External Comp. Sec., Historian and Publicity: Bill Taylor; Projectionist: Ernie Heathman.

May 26th 1988 Print and Slide of the Year

Competition combined with the presentation of league trophies as follows:Moorey Cup: Mono League ‘A’: Ron N Moore.

Shield for the ‘A’ League Aggregate: Steven Silk.

Cup for the Colour League Aggregate: Ivor Wellbelove and John Markwell.

Portsmouth Club Plate: Set Subject League: Keith Sawyer.

Cup for the Set Subject Aggregate: A J ‘Sammy’ Samson.

Easthope Cup: Mono League ‘B’: Dave Hunt Cup for the Mono League ‘8’ Aggregate: Andy Vowles.

The Elizabeth Cup: Print of the Year: Ron N Moore.

Bishop Salver: Slide of the Year: Steven Silk.

The Markwell ‘3 of a kind‘ Trophy: W D ‘Bill’ Taylor.

June 30th 1988 A visit was made to the Gales Brewery at Horndean. It seems that this is a good venue for the club members on summer evenings, having visited the site every few years, for many a long year. Perhaps it is because of the few glasses of liquor that are sampled afterwards.

August 21st 1988 Olive Quinnell invited the whole club membership to her house for a garden party.

On this occasion members were asked to dress in 20s style costumes if they could.

Lots of members did make the effort to dress up, many of them looking resplendent in frilly dresses in which to do the ‘Black Bottom’ (and that was just the men, only joking), the men were boaters and blazers

(jolly wizard show, eh chaps).

This was to be the start of an annual event. This was also one of the latter events arranged for the summer programme, which again was deemed an inimitable success by all who had attended.

It was with regret that we were to hear that Fred Goldsmith. a prominent member for many years, passed away in September. The Clubs condolences were passed on to his widow, Helen.

1989 The club projectionist. Ernie Heathman died suddenly on January 30. Another sad loss felt by many of the members.

April 4th to 21st, saw the Annual Exhibition take place at the Central Library again. On this occasion, the slides had been transferred to video tape by Brian Doherty. The Exhibition

... the video was stolen on the second day!.

Secretary, Ray Taylor, persuaded Radio Rentals to loan us a television set and video machine. Unfortunately, the video machine was stolen from the library on the second day, which meant that the slides were not shown for the rest of

the exhibition.

Trophy winners were as follows:The Hampshire Hundred Cup: Best print in Exhibition: I Wellbelove ARPS. The John Deacon Cup: Best Pictorial Print: I Wellbelove ARPS. The Frank J Privett Cup: Best Portrait Print: A J ‘Sammy’ Samson.

The Percy Clarke Plate: Best Maritime Print: Ivor Wellbelove ARPS. The Club Trophy: Best Abstract Print or Slide: Alan Spencer.

The Coronation Cup: Best Slide in Exhibition: Keith Sawyer ARPS. The Centenary Cup: Best Landscape: Ron S Hildersley.

The Frank Roberts Plate: Best Pictorial Slide: K Sawyer ARPS. The Woodriffe Cup: Best Portrait Slide: Mick Cooper.

The Burden Trophy: Best Maritime Slide: Ray Taylor.

April 26th 1989 It was decided to run an enprint competition for members on club evenings.

Enprints would be attached to a display board and after 3 or 4 weeks one would be removed by an anonymous member judge. At the end of the season all the heat winners would be judged and the winner awarded a trophy.

May 4th 1989 At the AGM. the treasurer informed the members that we currently held £l234.06 in the bank. The membership had fallen to 54 members. although a recruiting drive was to be started for the start of the new

season. It was felt that apart from Chichester Camera Club (who have a waiting list for membership), all other clubs in the area were suffering from a falling membership, due in no small way. we think. to the popularity of video camcorders.

Also started during this season

by Trevor Muston and Peter Downer was the ‘Pompey Chat’. the club newsletter.

This would be produced on a quarterly basis and distributed to members free of charge. It was greeted with great pleasure over the years, increasing in size and content.

Another long standing member.

John Moorey, sadly passed away in July of this year. John was the proud owner of a large collection of cameras. which he gladly showed to the members at every available opportunity.

He is probably sat on his little cloud at this moment taking photographs of us all. Rest in Peace. John.

September 6th 1989 A slide viewing box was produced for use in the Annual Exhibition. This had been made using a design from one used by the Winchester Camera Club and the willing help of several members. This turned out to be a perfect tool for showing our work at the exhibition. especially in view of the fiasco last year.

September It was decided to place a census in this copy of the ‘Chat’. in which some really searching questions were asked, in order to find out what people used,

or what they photographed and even to what they wished to see at the Club.

Unfortunately, there was very little response from the members and it eventually died a death.

suggested an increase of £1 in the subscriptions. which was agreed by the membership. The membership now stands at 47.

June 14th 1990 A treasure hunt was organised

by Trevor Muston. Several November members took part in the After appeals to Mayfield hunt which was done in cars.

School and St Johns College Hunters had to find the places for young new members had to go to from the clues that they been completely ignored. it was were given. The hunt ended at decided to keep looking for new a hostelry somewhere in the members from other sources, countryside. Most members i.e. advertising in the ‘News’. made it. Although one team, etc. decided that they would cheat and look Mrs Valerie Wood suggests the through the ‘easy clues’ possibility of contacting the envelope, using their headlamps Camera Club in Caen, France. to find out where they were to It was thought that as the two end up. Now what they saw cities of Portsmouth and Caen was the ‘George’, (which as I are twinned it would be nice to go to the ‘George’ at Finchdean see if an exchange of work was frequently), thought that they possible. should end up there. whereas in fact, they should have ended up at the ‘George’ at Hambledon.

1990 Better luck next time folks. th January 27 1990 The Annual Dinner Dance Another obituary. This time it took place at Melvilles Caravan is of Percy Clark, who joined Park at Eastney. This dance the club in 1933. He and his was attended by about 50 wife and family have been members and friends. For our lifelong supporters of the club. entertainment the music was His son, Dean, is still involved played by our old friend and with the club, inasmuch as he fellow member, Mick Cooper. kindly does an evening for us Mick is a professional in the summer programme in entertainer. as well as playing which he will take us around a the organ he has appeared in different area of Portsmouth, many television programmes. pointing out the historical In fact it is quite a good buildings and their significance pastime watching some of these in the area. programmes to see when you can spot him.

July 12th 1990 This was to be the first of the May 10th 1990 Annual Barbecue’s to be held at At the AGM, the treasurer the Queen Elizabeth Country revealed that we currently had Park, near Petersfield. Members £1043.53, in the bank. He clubbed together to cover the

... The Annual barbecue

cost of the food, which was then cooked by Trevor Muston.

Even though some of these evenings were spoilt by the rain, it never seemed to dampen anyone’s spirits.

August 18th 1990 We visited St Mary’s Church at Fratton, Portsmouth. We were shown over the Church by the Choirmaster, even taking us up into the bell tower.

Many courageous dare devils, not least Arthur Watts (who is almost blind), climbed the stairs that lead out onto the top of the tower, giving a fantastic view of Portsmouth and Portsdown Hill.

1991 May The treasurer at the AGM, told members that the membership now stood at 49. We were also told that funds held in the bank were £1064.86, and an insured value of the club’s assets of £2025.00.

Membership fees at this time stood at £18.50 (£8.50 for the club and £8.00 for the Community Centre).

The Print and Slide of the year awards for this year were:Moorey Cup: Mono League

‘A’: Ivor Wellbelove LRPS. Shield for the ‘A’ League Aggregate: Norman Lawrence.

Cup for the Colour League Aggregate: Brian Doherty LRPS LMPA LBIPP. Portsmouth Club Plate: Set Subject League: Duncan Lawler.

Cup for the Set Subject Aggregate: Ivor Wellbelove LRPS. Easthope Cup: Mono League ‘B’: Duncan Lawler Cup for the Mono League ‘B’ Aggregate: Mrs Joy Wellbelove.

The Elizabeth Cup: Print of the Year: Ivor Wellbelove LRPS. Bishop Salver: Slide of the Year: Duncan Lawler.

The Markwell ‘3 of a kind’ Trophy: Jack Goodhew.

July 4 1991 As part of the summer programme we went to the hallowed ground of “Pompey” football club, namely Fratton Park. A good evening was spent in the ground and afterwards in the club rooms. It was a treat for many members that had never set foot in the ground before, to see the comparative smallness of the ground, from what you had imagined. th

1992 January 23rd 1992 David and Janet Barton, regular visitors from the Gosport Camera Club. gave a talk entitled ‘Creating a better slide show’. This comical pair are two of the nicest people that have ever appeared at our club, they bounce off each other, taking turns in giving any commentary and in general having a good time. Alter all, isn’t that what photography

is all about, having fun with the work that you produce. We hope that it won’t be too long before they come back with another lecture.

March 19th 1992 Mick Cooper showed members a series of slides from his recent trip to Australia and the United States of America. He titled his talk ‘Around the world in 80 slides’, but you can be assured that he showed a lot more than that (around 300, I believe).

Nevertheless his show was a marvellous collection of his memories of that trip, in which he made you feel as though you had made it with him.

October 13th 1992 The Club President, Trevor Muston with his wife Wendy, after what seemed a never ending wait, finally go over to Caen, France, to visit the Exhibition of ‘Le Conquerant Photo Club‘ of Caen, who as part of the twinning had hung about 30 of our prints in their exhibition. It had been hoped that a party of our members could make the trip, but in the end it was only the President and his wife that went. The day was one not to be forgotten, with the President and his wife being driven around the city of Caen, to be shown the sights. The highlight of the Presidents day was when he was taken to ‘Pegasus Bridge‘, just outside Caen. This was the first place to be liberated during the second world war. He told us that you could feel the atmosphere of the place as you drove nearer to it.

October 15th 1992 Local Photographer. Frank Naylor. brought his lighting set up to the club to show the best way to light a portrait.

To assist him. he brought along a delightful young lady who was obviously keen to be photographed, modelling for members poses in whichever way they requested. Hopefully from this we shall see some marvellous portraits.

1993 January 21st 1993 The Southern Photographic Federation, Exhibition Slides are shown to the members. This is the first time that the club has shown these slides, so to ensure a good turn out other local clubs have been invited.

The evening was deemed to be a great success. with members looking forward to seeing the following years slides in the same way.

The Annual Dinner has had to be cancelled this year due to lack of interest. It will probably be a few more years before another one takes place, or someone else decides to put it together.

February 18th 1993 The Drama group at the Community Centre, made themselves available for the practical evening. They came with several changes of costume from their recent pantomime, which they had put on in the Community Centre. Members had a great time photographing ‘Wishes Washee’, the ‘Good Fairy’, the ‘Princess’ and others. This

was probably one of the better practical evenings for both, photographers and models.

March For the first time in a long while, the club has actually won a trophy. The Trophy was for winning the Southern Photographic Federation Print League. This was a good boost for the members after a good many lean years in external competitions.

April 18th 1993 Tonight saw a piece of controversy at the club. Brian Doherty, a well-respected member of the club was commenting on the print competition, when he came across a print which was a ‘colour photocopy‘. He suggested that the club will have to consider whether or not to allow this type of entry in the future. Was it photography?

The new look ‘Chat’ appears, now produced by Mick. It is now produced in A5 size, it the half the size of this history page.

It now contains more pictures than ever before, most of which have been computer generated

by Mick.

Good Luck, Mick, you’ll need it (Trevor).

May 13th 1993 At the AGM there was a proposal to abolish the trade processed section and amalgamate it with prints in the other leagues. This was rejected, along with another proposal to spend around £500 on new lighting for the club members use.

weather.

May 20th 1993 Ven Dodge gave a very interesting talk and demonstration entitled ‘From neg to print’. This took you through all the stages from exposing the negative right through to mounting the print. For weeks afterwards. members were talking about the enthusiastic way in which he had put it across, and how they were going to have a go themselves.

Ven, then presented the end of season awards to the persons who had eamt them. At the end of the evening, Trevor Muston, the outgoing President handed over the regalia to the incoming President, Mick Cooper.

May 27th 1993

... brave souls walking around the Southsea Rock Gardens.

The first night of the summer season saw eight brave souls walking around Southsea Rock Gardens, then making their way back to Miss Madge Farrants house for refreshments.

July 4th 1993 The Garden Party at Olive Quinnell’s house takes place again, in perfect cricketing

September Presidents Night. Mick Cooper showed the members some of his prints and slides taken over the preceding ten years of his membership of the club.

November This year saw a change in the Annual Exhibition date. This year it ran from November 29 to December 18, again at the Central Library in Guildhall Square. The reason for the change was that when we had the Exhibition in April, it was so close to the end of the season, that we may have lost out on prospective new members, who would have to wait until September to join.

In attendance were the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Portsmouth, Mr & Mrs Alex Bentley, as well as the President of the Southern Photographic Federation, Mr Leo Rich. Also present were members of Le Conquerant Photo Club from Caen, who also had prints hung in the exhibition.