1960

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.

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 book(s) and of course finding space to store it.

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.

“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.

“Photographic Make-up” by R Blare with Courtesy of Leichers Ltd.
The first half was a serious talk on the types of make up to be used both for 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.
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 from 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 connections 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’. Incidently 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 modem age. Ted Faber offered to play with it.
He ripped out the old lighting system and installed a modem 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 RPS’s 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 33/4” x 33/4” 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.

Around this time there was some uncertainty over the clubs quarters, the old building was coming down and a new one was replacing it. In the meantime therefore, we would have to look around for new premises. Jim Hewes reported 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 the 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 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 committee that due to a number of proposals to the competition rules, they had become unworkable. Due to the chaotic and contradictory alterations, I was instructed along with Ron Cake to try and put some sense into them.
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 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.

“Fun with things photographic” with Mr Stanton King courtesy of Specto Limited.
He was a very large person who gave a very good, and at times extremely humerous talk, covering Black and White, Colour Slide and Cine combined on 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

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 j).
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 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. All of this was achieved with the aid of the control box.
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 eight 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 £8-14-l0d (£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 be 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, 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. In 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, I was asked to collect in the entries. Sure enough on the night along came three regular offenders to hand in their work at 9.30pm, 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, no-one 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.

“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.

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)

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 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.

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 colour balance and mounting etc.

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 Jim 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.

“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 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”.

1968

Up until now I haven’t mentioned too many members, but I do feel that this is an appropriate time to mention Terry Lawson. Terry was a quiet unassuming sort of character, rather sensitive, but who beavered away in the background, doing an enormous amount of “odds and ends”, that make up club life. He was always willing to do practically anything that cropped up. I do know that he was very useful to me due to all the sorts of things that crop up and are dumped onto the secretaries plate.

The President, Sid Woodriffe had done some stirling work during a rather difficult year. In particular, the effort he put in to securing the continued existence of the Annual Exhibition.

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 exactly how he obtained the finished result. He asked for questions from the floor as he went along and by jove, there were plenty. A magnificent evening from a delightful unassuming worker.
Charlie and I became firm friends over the years but, like so many of the old hands, is no longer with us.

“Portraiture Lighting” by W J Paul FRPS.
Bill travelled down from London, bringing a model with him. The model was always a top London one. This evening was part lecture, part practical. After a short talk on lighting and posing he got down to the practical side of things. Members produced there cameras, of which there were a lot, and then saw Bill constantly on the move, advising, adjusting, talking to the model, he never stopped. A wonderful evening by a Master.

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. It 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 Ilford Ltd.
This was not a sponsored evening, but from an employee of Ilford. 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 Ilfords 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 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 I 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.