Northern Suburbs Camera Club	Northside Creative Photography

History

Northern Suburbs Camera Club as it was know then was born on 29th May 1952 when the inaugural meeting was held in the Chatswood Town Hall. It was opened by Tim Wilson as convener and chairman and he also became the first President.

The club has a proud record and the quality of the club’s photography has always been considered one of the highest in NSW and perhaps even nationally.

The success of the club has waxed and waned over the years with the membership oscillating between 17 and 130.

Photo Gallery

A photo gallery has been created to show key events and people.

Patrons

1996 – 1999 Henry Talbot EFIAP

Henry Talbot was born Heinz Tichauer on 6 January 1920 at Hindenburg, Germany. He displayed an early fascination with photography which his middle-class Jewish parents encouraged by presenting him with a Rollieflex on his bar mitzvah. By the time he was eighteen Henry decided not to enter the family business and left Hindenburg to study graphic design at Berlin’s acclaimed Reimann School. In November 1938 this all came to an end when the Nazis conducted the infamous Kristalnacht. Henry’s father Max was detained in Germany, but having won the Iron Cross in WWI, he was released, and subsequently he and his wife, Else Breibart, fled to Bolivia. Henry traveled to London where he worked as a designer. In 1940 he was interned and pressured in to traveling to Australia.

After internment at Hay, Henry joined the Australian Military Forces in 1942. While fruit picking in the Goulbourn Valley he arrived at Tocumwal where he met a young charismatic photographer named Helmut Neustadter. Thirteen years later after changing his name to Helmut Newton, he and Henry reunited establishing a photographic studio in Melbourne.

Talbot produced some of the most inventive fashion photography seen in Australia. He liberated his models from the studio and established new freedoms by photographing in exciting locations using natural light and unusual props. He was also drawn to other genres including documentary and the nude.

Talbot closed his studio and lectured photography at the Preston Institute of Photography. He retired from teaching in 1985 and moved to Sydney. Talbot was a gentle but compelling teacher and gave his time freely to organisations including Northern Suburbs Camera Club where he was patron. He sadly passed away in 1999. Shortly after his death, the Australian Institute of Professional Photography instituted the Henry Talbot Award for Services to the Photographic Industry.

Obituary

1999 – 2011 Archie Raymond AFIAP FRPS AAPS SSAPS

Arch was a great friend and mentor for the club. He invented many darkroom techniques that he willingly taught to club members in tutorials that he gave in his house. Some of these he explained in his beautifully illustrated book: “The Artful Dodger”.

Arch strongly promoted the idea of “Free Style” and creativity. With his wife Mary he devised the club’s first definition of creative photography and presented a stunning 3D model scene in the first National Freestyle competition.

On the 21st of August 2002 Arch presented a “Retrospective Exhibition and Talk”. St David’s Hall was packed to capacity and the attendance was a who’s who of the photographic world – amateur and professional. Everyone was enthralled by the superb quality of his prints and the variety of his subjects.

Arch embraced the digital technology and mastered it in no time, producing magnificent prints.

With his wife Mary he traveled the world from one Pole to the other adding constantly to their enormous collection of stunning images.

Arch entered many competitions and collected many well deserved awards. Arch gained his Associateship of the Royal Photographic Society (UK) in 1988, the Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 1990. In 1991 he gained the award of Artiste de la Federation Internationale de l’Art Photographique (Belgium).

Arch exhibited his work in Sydney, Melbourne and London and he has won numerous gold and silver awards in national and International Photographic Exhibitions.

He also wrote numerous articles for the Australian and British press.

Arch was very concerned that the club functioned to the highest possible professional level and his advice were always listened to with great attention.

He passed away in 2011, aged 90.

Tribute

Meeting Places

Since Ku-ring-gai Council does not provide meeting rooms for clubs, it has been necessary to move many times.

1952 to 1956

The inaugural meeting was held in the Chatswood Town Hall on 29th May 1952. It was opened by Tim Wilson as convener and chairman. He was also the first President but he resigned on 1st March 1954. The purpose of the meeting was the formation of a photographic group which would meet at regular intervals in Chatswood. The idea was received with great enthusiasm, the attendance was 62 and a collection was taken to defray expenses and the sum of £4-11-0 was donated.

A committee of seven was elected to hold a meeting at the Camera Market, Pacific Highway, Chatswood on Wednesday 7th June 1952 and report to the General Meeting on June 26th. Several names were suggested including Chatswood Camera Club but Northern Suburbs Camera Club prevailed. The yearly subscription was £ 1-1-0.

Committee meetings were more frequent than now, being monthly for many years.

As was customary at the time every single decision had to be moved, seconded and voted upon even if it was a question of “buying a few pegs for the pegboard”. Our pace of life has certainly quickened since then.

Members were graded in Seniors (A grade), Intermediates (B grade) and Beginners (C grade).

In the monthly competitions the A and B grades had 8 set subjects and 4 open and the C grades 4 set subjects and 8 open. 62 members and visitors attended the first meeting. 5 were graded A, 12 B and 23 C.

The first club outing was to Fullers Bridge.

Note Leslie Slack was actually 1st Vice President

At the 23rd November 1953 committee meeting there was lengthy discussion on whether liquor be allowed at the Christmas social. Finally Mr W moved a motion that whether liquor is consumed or not be left to the discretion of each member. Motion was carried with 3 dissenters!!!

In 1954 it was decided that the club outing would be in Brooklyn. The place was selected as suitable on account of the confined area and that members were less likely to scatter!!! For the first hour members were to photograph the “set subject”, then have lunch before being allowed to scatter.

1957 – 1963

In 1957 “In Focus” was resurrected and a permanent collection of members work was planned. It is not known when “In Focus” was first published nor if a collection of members work was ever implemented.

There were problems with collection of supper money. Mr S suggested that members enter the kitchen through one door, pay their 1/- and leave through the other door (Bad luck: our present kitchen has only one door).

On 29th August 1957 Mr D proposed the purchase of a typewriter for £18.

Rothmans (cigarettes) sponsored a photographic competition with prizes of £10, £3, £2 respectively for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place getters. Smoking was allowed in the hall provided that no cigarette butts were left at the end of the meeting.

On 31st July 1958 Mr J. stated that he may be able to obtain a typewriter for approximately £10. Enquiries would be made…..

In November there was a crisis and the meeting had a lengthy discussion on the club’s future. It was originally formed to take photographs but only about 10% of the members were active in this field.

And in 1959 the club and the FCC had a dispute over judges. NSCC planned to resign from the FCC and membership grew to 71. That year the first SLRs were launched.

1960 was a good year; the secretary reported that “It is only eight years since the club was founded and it is one of the leading clubs in NSW and possibly Australia”

In 1961 membership had grown to 84.

On August 24th the Congregational Church (our landlords at the time) requested that our members attend a Church service. It was agreed that a tactful refusal was to be made by the secretary!!!

In 1962 it was decided to purchase a second hand typewriter at the cost of not more than £15. On 14th March 1963 after general discussion it was agreed to purchase a second hand typewriter for £15 (5 years after the idea was floated!).

1963 – 1966

In 1963 our members went to Springwood Camera Club. with prints from the club for discussion and social contact. It is obvious that NSCC’s prints were highly regarded.

But membership dropped to 49 and the bank balance to £18.

The club organized a very successful beginner’s class for 60 people.

The publication of “In Focus” was tied to subsidies from photographic suppliers and when these dried up so did the publication.

In 1964 membership bounced back to 77 with 53 taking part in competitions. The set subjects were not well patronized.

In 1965 Blacktown Camera Club was sponsored by NSCC. FCC is contacted to see if Blacktown is a “Country club”. FCC advises that sponsorship is not limited to country clubs.

Membership dropped to 29 but recovered to 42 at year end. As nobody wanted to wash up, disposables are purchased.

Some members are losing interest in taking pictures as they have no one to go out with. Field trips are suggested.

There are problems with the projector as it burns the slides. Projector failures have been a recurrent problem in recent years.

A vote of thanks was extended to Mr G for his offer of ashtrays stamped with the club badge for prizes.

In 1966 Mr S complained that the colour workers never stayed in the club very long and contributed very little to the activity of the club. He suggested that that perhaps the club should become a strictly Black & White club!

The standard is high and a prominent visiting judge commented that the prints were better than that of the Sydney International and could not be equalled by any other club he knew.

 1967 – 1973

In 1967 and 1968 the club fared well in Interclub and “Knock Out” competitions.

In 1969 NSCC was the prime organizer of the Northside Festival of Arts. It was supported by Pittwater, Mosman, Manly and Northside CC, each manning the display for one day.

In 1970 “In Focus” was in doubt but given a reprieve. The typewriter was again in need of attention but an overhaul is deferred for the time being. Membership was now 53.

This was the last year of an interclub with Newcastle Camera Club because all the work is done by the same old members, new members being unwilling to help and make the trip to Newcastle. The clubs swapped the trophies: Newcastle took back the B/W and NSCC the colour slides.

In 1971 there was a huge effort to publicise the club in newspapers with some success. The club organized a night of (slide) audio-visuals prepared by groups of members.

Judges are again hard to find and the club resorted to some judging by members under the supervision of a chairman.

In 1972 the membership dropped to 37. The President blasted members for not entering more prints and slides in the competitions, the life blood of the club!!!

A & B grades were amalgamated as there was insufficient distinction to justify two grades.

Judges were expected to select about 33% of entries to gain a Merit or a Special Merit.

NSCC elected its first female President.

In 1973 the club celebrated its 21st Birthday with dinner at Hamlet Elsimore, Warrawee.

As was traditional then the club took a country club under its wings. This year it was Murwillumbah Camera Club. NSCC helped with tape judging.

The visitors complained of the lack of brightness of the screen. The projector was found to be 1½ stop below FCC recommended standards. Bulbs would be replaced,

 1974-1987

1974 there was another membership drop with only 20 active members that could be considered as regular contributors to competitions.

In 1975 A & B grades were reinstated; open nights were well supported but not the set subjects.

In 1976 B grades were discontinued because there were no juniors in the club.

In 1977 NSCC moved from Roseville to Killara.

From 1978 to 1980 the club continued to struggle with membership at 32; there was a plan to reintroduce A and B grades.

In 1981 Mr R pointed out that the club may soon have to alter the rules for colour prints and withdraw permission for members to have their competition colour prints commercially processed. Many colour workers were now processing their own prints and it would be unfair to have them compete with commercially processed work.

In 1982, in spite of an increase in fees the club was losing money. Mr B proposed that prints be sold at local art shows at $25/30 with 25% to the church…and the President reported that not all members were paying for tea and coffee at meetings.

In 1983 Mrs V suggested that she and Mrs T should bring sandwiches instead of biscuits at meetings whilst Mr M prepared hand painted trophies for score awards and they were much admired.

In 1984 discussions continued on commercially processed prints and the scoring system was again changed with the introduction of handicaps for slides. (the better you did one year the greater your handicap the following one).

Attilio del Sal joins NSCC. Attilio is our longest serving member.

In 1985 it appeared that “In Focus” had been discontinued but was to be revived.

Attilio joined the 1986 Syllabus committee.

At the 1987 AGM only 13 members were present, 15 being needed for a quorum.

The year finished on a high with a great Christmas party hosted by Attilio.

1988 – 1994

In 1988 NSCC struggles to survive and in 1989 the committee’s size is reduced from 9 to 6 and the AGM quorum from 15 to 6. The membership had dropped to 17!

The mini print section was introduced in 1990.

In 1991/1992 Elizabeth Skillington reluctantly accepted the presidency of the club and she bravely struggled to keep the club going, but for how much longer?

Suddenly new blood emerges. Richard Brady (#15) joined the moribund club in the early months of 1993 and on 28th July was elected President.

On 1st September membership is still only 23 and Richard stressed the need to increase membership. At meeting nights the table that separated the “executive” from the members was removed, the red tape was cut and club meetings were meant to develop one’s creative aspirations.

Within a very short time Richard’s enthusiasm spread and membership grew steadily and in 1994 more present and recent members joined the club: Barbara Bryan, Maree Davidson, Jan Glover, Ken Knell, June Stone, John Sutton and Brian York.

The club moved from St Ives Community centre to the Baptist Church Hall in Gordon.

Professor Phil Schofield accepted to join the club. It was a master stroke. By his example he encouraged all members to experiment in mixed media and creativity. With the help of scissors, glue, sandpaper, tea and anything that one’s imagination could visualize members created exciting works and found a new freedom of expression.

Many judges struggled with this new approach and felt that unless these creations were re-photographed they could not be judged as photographs.

The legacy of Phil Schofield and Richard Brady with his dynamic committee has never left the club. Richard’s non member wife Cheryn undertook much behind the scenes work. Richard remained President for five very exciting years.

1995 – 2000

In 1995 the club enlisted 30 new members with Carol Makeham and Jenny Turtle still very active members.

Arch Raymond presented a very inspiring talk on creative photography and NSCC took part in two interclub competitions.

In 1996 Henry Talbot became the patron of the club.

Richard and Sharyn Brady organized very memorable outback trips.

In 1996 Mark Howard (#54) and Jacques Roussel (#49) joined in the euphoria of creativity. Club members were given an identifying number. No longer did we put our name at the back of print or front of slides but our number, so that judges would not be influenced by who they may know.

Jan Glover was the club’s secretary.

In 1997 three members joined who still have a great impact on the club’s success: Arch Raymond (#82), Mary Raymond (#77) and John Huggett (#94).

In 1998 Michael Hunt and Joy Williams joined the club.

Richard Brady wanted more time to further his studies and Barbara Bryan took over as president.

Barbara felt handicapped by having “Camera Club” as part of our club’s name because most clubs are incredibly conservative and many would be presenters want nothing to do with “Camera Clubs”.

In 1999 Henry Talbot sadly passed away; he was a leading fashion and portrait photographer, a charming man with a very witty sense of humour.

Barbara Bryan convinced Arch Raymond to become our Patron. Arch gave the club great support by entering stunning images in competitions and teaching members many esoteric darkroom techniques.

The committee had grown to 17 members, a very unwieldy number. Committee meetings tended to get bogged down on less relevant issues. Decision making became difficult.

In 2000 Eric Adcock, Norman Wong, Sandy Jacka and George Fracchia joined the club.

With very little notice the Gordon Baptist Church advised us that their hall was no longer available. Barbara Bryan and Jan Glover chased all the possible available venues and settled on the hall of St David’s Uniting Church in Lindfield.

That year Jan Glover was awarded a first prize at the Sydney International Competition.

In April a vote was taken to change the name of the club: three options were offered: two in favour and one for no change. Very emotional speeches were given for and against a new name. The arguments against change were that “Creative” may frighten would be members and that if the present name was good enough to attract members in such large numbers why change it. The result was 66.6% voting in favour of either of the new names and 33.4% against, delaying any change as the constitution required 75% acceptance.

The committee resolved to reduce the options to adopt “Northside Creative Photography” or no change. John Huggett proposed to add “A club for enthusiasts“ as a by line.

At the AGM of 19th July “Northside Creative Photography” was overwhelmingly accepted. Norman Wong’s brother in law designed our beautiful new club’s logo.

2001

The club changed from Financial year to Calendar year and in January 2001 Sandy Jacka took over the presidency. Her charm and positive approach received strong support from committee and members.

Membership was climbing and at each meeting there are new faces. Kay Hill, Flora Gill and Harry Mills join Northside Creative Photography.

Miriam Wiggers de Vries edited “In Focus” and with Catherine Brown set up our first website.

Over 60% of members entered the competitions – 39% enter monochromes, 39% mini prints.

2002

For 2002 John Huggett proposed that our programme should be in colour and should incorporate photographs from club members and together John and Jacques produced the first of what is now an annual production. Jan Glover has produced it ever since. Jan also took over the editing of “In Focus”.

Susan Buchanan, Chris Barlow, Beryl Jenkins, Malcolm McKay joined the club.

This was also our club’s 50th anniversary and John Huggett organized the official dinner at the Chatswood Golf Course. Des Crawley gave a moving speech, Sandy organized a fun Quiz.

On 21st August Arch Raymond presented a retrospective. A real “who’s who” of the photographic world attended this great evening.“In Focus” grew to 4/6 pages.

In September we took part in the “Showcasing the arts in Ku Ring Gai” at the town hall. A very impressive display of arts and crafts but unfortunately visitors were few.

Monochrome Photographs appeared for the first time in the November “In Focus”.

The club night entry fee was replaced by a lucky door prize.

2003

In 2003 Wanda Bowen, Tim Collisbird, Wal Lamberth, Carolyn Pettigrew and Dawn Zandstra joined the club.

Alison Pratt who raced HSV’s used her considerable charm to organise an outing to Eastern Creek Raceway. Racing officials were astonished as members took up position track side.

John Huggett launched the first “Photo Rally” and this becomes a regular feature of our calendar. Tim Downs revamps the website and turns it into a very up to date outfit.

Film users make pressure for their photographs to be judged in separate sections from the digital entries but to no avail.

Alison Pratt was both secretary and editor of “In Focus” and asked for her load to be lightened.

In August twelve members spent an exciting weekend in Barrington Tops which is renowned as much for the photography as executive decision making. Our President Sandy Jacka suggested to Susan Buchanan that she take over the presidency of the club and asks Chris Barlow to take over as editor of “In Focus” in 2004. Alison has a serious car accident and Chris takes over the editing of In Focus much sooner than he expected and develops it into a very attractive publication full of colour photographs.

Chris assists Tim Downs with the Website and installed the Photo Gallery software.

2004

In 2004 the printing of 100 copies of the now 6 – 8 page “In Focus” was becoming difficult and it was decided to email copies to members and only do a small print run.

In February Jackie Rankin presented “Different ways of seeing”. Her father piloted a Tiger Moth and she photographed the landscape while the plane was doing loops.

We spent a great day photographing dogs and horses at the Wyong Race Club.

Prof Des Crawley presented his “Prospective” “Celebration of Beauty – The Figure” a moving exhibition of semi abstract nudes. He has also entered the digital world.

The committee was reduced to 8.

Ken Ball suggested that we “smell the roses” and experience Zen and the art of seeing: “Stop rushing, observe, see what is around us and break the rules.”

2005

We gathered in February for a great social evening organized by Carolyn Pettigrew. The theme was “Oo La La, A Night in France”. Delicious “French” food and champagne complements a friendly photo competition on the same theme.

Bill Henson’s controversial exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW was the main topic of conversation.

Tim Downs moved to Queensland and Chris Barlow became full time Webmaster. Peter Finlay took over as newsletter editor and towards the end of the year he was replaced by Peter Marks.

Great nights were also provided by Tim Clayton the then sports photography editor of the SMH and by Tim Hixson and his plastic lens Holga Cameras. Tim modified his camera to focus at a certain distance and changes cameras rather than apertures.

The Rally for this year was in Paddington. So impressive were the photos that we were invited to exhibit a selection in the Woollahra Council’s office.

Chris Barlow with the assistance of Wal Lamberth commenced the time consuming task of sourcing a good quality data projector for the club.Peter Sambell and wife Mary arranged for the club to photograph both rehearsal and concert performed by the Willoughby City Brass Band. We were given full freedom of movement.Northside held two online digital competitions towards the end of the year and they are very popular. The judging of the first one is carried out online by Bob Milo and Arch Raymond.

It was Northside’s first foray in digital photography and many members struggled with resizing of images and uploading them to the Webserver. The workload for the Webmaster was not sustainable and he begged the committee that there be no more.

Matt Hoyle presented a collection of large portraits where his subjects were seen warts and all, be it wrinkles, skin cancer or scars. The faces overfill the frames. Emotional effect was huge.