| History |
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brief account of the history of the Oxford Photographic Society
by Vernon C Brooke ABIPP AMPA ARPS President OPS June 2007
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The very early days of the OPS are poorly recorded
due to the loss of the archives between the first and second
world wars. During WW 2 the secretary ship changed hands so
many times due to the uncertainty of wartime life generally,
that the archives up to that time have been lost. I sincerely
hope that one day these important records will come to light.
One of our club members did some research at the Brandford Museum
of photography during our centenary year in 1989. He discovered
in the records of the Royal Photographic Society the first known
mention of the OPS was a slide lecture at the Holywell music
rooms OU in 1889. This is the earliest record of the club so
far but it is likely that the club existed before that. In another
reference in Practical Photographers Annual of 1908 details
of the OPS stated that in 1894 the society had a membership
of 100, the entrance fee was 1 shilling and the annual membership
was five shillings, meetings were held on the second and forth
Mondays of each month at the University museum, ladies where
admitted, Exhibitions of photographs where held Bi-annually
and the society was affiliated to the Royal Photographic Society.
The secretary at the time was George Newton and the president
was none other than Sir John Hershel the famous astronomer.
A copy of an old photograph from the Oxford city archives shows
a group of OPS members on an outing to Clifton Hampden in 1890.
the picture shows a horse and trap, a crowd of photographers
and a forest of tripod legs! |
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| Our present archives start around 1943. these
are a little sketchy so a lot of the following information comes
from my own recollections as a continuous member for 58 years
having joined in 1949, when I first joined the leading lights
in the club were Bob Rose, Harold Crawley ARPS, Jock Williams
ARPS and Jim Forest (secretary) in the years immediately following
the war photographic materials were in very short supply, government
war surplus was available in the form of five inch roll film
normally intended for use in military aerial cameras, members
would purchase this film and by use of a home made gadget split
the film down the middle to produce two strips two and a half
inches wide (standard 120 roll film) this was then cut to the
appropriate length and attached to second hand backing paper
for re use, all these operation had to be carried out in total
darkness, Unfortunately there was never an indication of the
film speed so a lot of experimenting was required, it was common
practice for most members to make up their own chemicals using
stock supplied mainly from Boots the Chemist, book on formulae
were supplies by Ilford , Kodak ,Agfa and others, this was the
age of innovation, the club had an extensive library where books
could be loaned at meetings and returned in two weeks, various
venues were used for meetings including the Oxford Girls school
rooms at the rear of Rowells silversmith in the high street,
the Geology department OU, Oriel College lecture rooms and some
meetings a Southfield school. Practical meetings included Portraiture,
film and print processing and lens testing. In the 50s and 60s
two print portfolios were circulated one for East Oxford and
one for West Oxford, Each folio had about fourteen members who
each in turn placed a print together with all details of the
camera, lens, film, paper, developer etc inside. also included
was a sheet for comments by each member, When the circuit was
complete the print and comment sheet was taken out and a further
print and details put in, this provided useful information on
various processing and technical details. |
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For many years the club held a Christmas Social
evening where wives, partners and friends were invited to come
along, unfortunately this has been discontinued which is a pity
as the social side is an essential part of club life , recently
small groups of members have enjoyed trips to Wales, Canada,
Kenya and Romania with more venues suggested, this allows for
a broader outlook and also produces some excellent images.
At the present time the club membership stands at around 57members
and new members are joining through logging on to our website.
In recent years the change over to digital imaging has been
dramatic where the use of computers allows freedom of imagination
(where would we be with out Photoshop?) more members are changing
from traditional film to digital, partly due to the increasing
difficulty in obtaining 35mm film stock, (perhaps a trip to
the army surplus is needed?). The club has a healthy future
as we look to the next 100 years. |
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