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 121/2”, 20” by 161/2” and 25” by 20”. Entrance fee 2/6d (l2l/2p).
Subscription due January 1st …. 10/6d (52l/2p)
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 Bromoils).

October 8 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 5 1920
The first monthly print competition winners were: ­R Parker, Cecil Davies, F Harfield, GH Payne and JL Dyer.

November 19 1920
Cecil Davies on “Lenses and their Manufacture”.
Cecil told members that 1000s 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.

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.

February 24 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 aroused, judging by the quantity of questions asked.

May 12 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.

October 16 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 1 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 12 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 26 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 41’4” by 3V4”, nowadays that’s a BIG camera.

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 I have never heard of.

October 7 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 Insect Life.

1923

This is a 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 9 1923
Modern negative making by WF Slater FRPS. FROS
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 24 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, 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 10 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 22 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 H C 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. It 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 HW Watson M.Sc. 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.

Club 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 modem 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 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
Club member FJ 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 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 (2l/2p) an hour was levied to cover costs. The camera was a whole plate 81/2” by 61/2”, mounted no doubt, on a monster studio stand.
The darkroom contained two ½ plate enlargers 41/2” by 61/2”, 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 19 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 Ilfords 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.

1927

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. I 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 lantern 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”.

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.

11 September 1927
“Do you know Britain” by H Felton FRPS.
This was an evening held in the form of a competition. It 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.

18 September 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 J C 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 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 (31/4 by 41/4) as miniature cameras. It is certainly different today where the 21/4 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 I have ever seen, then or since.)

The fully equipped 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 interclub competitions were always lively affairs, with many ribald comments amongst members.