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NOW FOR THE BORING ADMIN STUFF

26/3/2015

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Tonight was the club's annual general meeting which started with the election of club officials.

This was Alan Thompson’s last meeting as Club Chairman.  As you will be aware, Alan had held the position of Club Chairman for the last two years, but felt it was time to pass on the reigns to someone else.

In his final Chairman’s address he reinforced what he believed to be the strengths of the club, which although small, or perhaps because of its small size was able to maintain a friendly, informal easy going culture which was reinforced as he reiterated the clubs involvement in various different forms of photography over the last year including macro, time-lapse, astronomical, long exposure, flash and portrait photography.

He talked about the success of the club’s second weekend trip away in May 2014 when the destination was Caernarfon in north Wales, where despite the sometimes unpredictable weather, a fabulous time was had by all attending, including visits to Llanddwyn, Penmon and South Stack in Anglesey, the abandoned slate quarry at Dorothea and Snowdonia.  

Other great successes were the ‘Puffin Run’ visit to the Farne Islands, a further visit Andy Howey’s Bird of Prey Centre and a day spent at the Mayfield Studio where members practiced their skills in portraiture using all the facilities a fully equipped studio can provide..

He finished by adding that we had seen a modest rise in club membership which possessed a  wide range of skills and abilities and looked forward to the club going from strength to strength.

Gordon submitted the Club Accounts for 2014/2015 for approval which remain healthily in the black.

This left only the small matter of the election of the committee,


Lisa Melton was proposed, seconded and duly elected as Club Chairwoman.

Gordon Coull was re-elected as Club Treasurer.

Tony Stevens was re-elected as Club Secretary.

All that remained was for the club membership to show their thanks and appreciation to Alan for all the hard work he put into running and taking the club forward over the past two years.

There were no nay says to the proposal that he had done an outstanding job.

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EVERY PHOTOGRAPH IS A TIME CAPSULE.

12/3/2015

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Although an accomplished photographer, Joe Sheridan’s presentation this evening did not feature a single one of his photographs.

He will be forgiven on this occasion as his presentation featured a history of photography during the First World War.

The first use of photography was for recruitment and propaganda, using images to stir up patriotism and to focus the mind of the nation on their common enemy.

As the war dragged on and casualties mounted, the power of photography as a tool came to the fore as the government recognised its potential in maintaining the morale and cohesiveness of the nation. To that end, the National War Aims Committee (NWAC), a semi-official parliamentary organisation set up with cross-party support in the summer of 1917.

Eager to hide the horrors of war from the population, the military took steps to prevent the use of cameras by soldiers at the front, preferring the use of approved images provided by commissioned photographers.

Photographers being photographers however bypassed these rules and took their Box Brownies and Vest Pocket Kodaks to war and using their imagination, cunning  and subterfuge managed to get their images back to Blighty.  This was in contrast to the Germans whose High Command was quite happy to allow their troops to record their lives on photographs.

Throughout his presentation, Joe illustrated aspects  from all points of view using photographs taken by allied and German troops on the front line, ‘approved’ War Office photographs and those taken by groups opposed to the war.

Of particular interest were the images taken by Ernest Brooks who took photographs throughout the war, from the fresh faced eager recruits at the start of the war through to the tired, weary,  grim faced veterans at the end of the conflict.  

Joe cleverly managed to portray the horrors of war, not by scenes of carnage, but as etched in the faces of those long gone men and women who lived through it, the child soldiers, the tired and weary troops, the women on the home front who provided the tools of war whilst at the same time keeping the country running and the portraits of families torn apart by the madness of war.

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