Excerpts from the RAPC Souvenir History
CELEBRATING 75 YEARS
Keeping Up With the Times (2005-2014)
Executive representatives and keen members met on April 9, 2005, to brainstorm ideas to guide future plans for the fast-growing RA Photo Club. Spearheaded by Ken Hutchinson, Pierre Gauthier and Rob James, the long-term planning session was guided by professional facilitator Raphael Amato in confronting some basic questions: “What changes do we foresee? Do we want to get much bigger? How can the club best understand and serve the interests of its members? What do we want to keep, throw out, or create?”
Under Rob James as Club Chair in 2005-06, an expanded executive along with other volunteers numbered 79 individuals, some of whom took several different roles. The executive took immediate action to implement projects recommended in the April planning session. Rob James headed a team delving into the crucial issue of facilities needed to serve the club’s rapidly expanding membership. Numbers had risen in the previous year to 261, including 109 new members. To cope with this unprecedented upsurge, a comprehensive 52-page New Members Information Package was produced to explain aspects of club services and activities.
Significant changes were made to the club web site as Barry Thoms resigned after ten years as web master and a new site was developed under the name of raphotoclub.ca by Brett Delmage and John Elliott. Action to initiate this change was undertaken by the club’s new Communications Committee.
An era came to a close in January 2006 with the take-down of an exhibit by Nathalie Julien to conclude a long-running series of photo exhibits by members of the RA Photo Club. Since November 1998, a total of 97 photo exhibits had been held at the National Press Club photo gallery. More than 80 RA Photo Club members took advantage of this opportunity to showcase their work in a locale frequented by news media, communications professionals and passers-by from Parliament Hill. A continuing record of the entire exhibit series was maintained by exhibit coordinator Nix Wadden in five photo albums depicting the various exhibits. Many Photo Club members who got their start at the National Press Club went on to show their work in a variety of other locations.
Founded in 2006, the Urban Group focused on shooting “people and their environment” and “urban landscapes,” probing the photographic potential in urban lifestyles, workplaces and leisure activities. Its formation proved highly appealing to members seeking new ways to harness their photographic skills, exploring scenes, themes and settings where the “hand of man,” so shunned by nature photographers, was the centre of interest.
Group founder Mike Heffernan spelled out its objectives: “There will be an early focus on conceiving and bringing new activities into the club…such things as artistic photography, architecture, photojournalism, sports, festivals and events, arts, politics, nightlife, commercial and industrial themes…Many of our members regularly find great images where they are least expected…where the trees are lampposts, the rivers are asphalt, and reflections are most often found in shop windows.”
The group’s first outing, a shoot in Chinatown, was followed by an exciting period in which partnerships were made with the organizers of summer festivals wanting photographic coverage of their events. Six organizations — the Tulip Festival, the Canadian Dance Festival, the Dragon Boat Races, the Hope Volleyball Tournament, the Chamber Music Festival and Bluesfest — offered RAPC photographers special access for close-up shooting of their performances.
Resulting images were made available for festival promotion, and posted to an online gallery on the Photo Club web site. Top picks and the top three winners selected by festival representatives were announced. Club members’ participation was enthusiastic. Over the summer, daily posts to the online gallery resulted in over 3,500 photographs being posted by 33 photographers. Similar arrangements were introduced in later seasons, but diminished owing to requirements for formal event partnerships and the festivals’ reluctance to issue sufficient passes for event shooting.
The Urban Group’s first Iron Butt Photo Rally sent 24 club zealots on an adventurous driving expedition in the general direction of Montreal, stopping every 20 minutes to take pictures wherever they were to document their journey. Michael Scott’s newsletter report summed it up: “Where else could one photograph gulls on ice, the shadow of Jesus across the road, a beat-up abandoned boat sitting in a field, a leather-masked man walking up to Timmy’s, an inflatable waving Santa Claus and spittin’ llamas at dusk, all in one day?” Resulting photos were later shared with other club members. Similar outings followed to destinations as varied as Montreal, Kingston, Westport, the Ottawa Valley and the Pontiac region in Québec.
Michael Scott led the group briefly until forced to resign because of ill health, being succeeded by Corry Berghout. She filled in as acting leader following terms served by Marc Gaudet, Michael Bells and David Burt. The current Urban Group leader is Freeman Keats.
Zygmunt Jakubek succeeded as Newsletter editor from 2006 to 2009, and the newsletter era ended late that year with three issues edited by Aruna Kalutanthri. The demise of the newsletter resulted in the web site appearance a year later of the first RA Photo Blog with newsy reports edited by Dave Elden. Demonstrating the unique capability of internet communications, blog contents touched on Open House, nature competition results, and accounts of members’ participation in current exhibitions. A notable innovation was the launch of “At the Galleries,” a monthly compilation by Bill Woodley of photo exhibits at local galleries. By 2011-2012, as many as 700 visits to the web site per day were reported, with a 12-month total of five million hits. Blog editing chores were continued by Mike Howarth and Chak Wong. Webmaster John Elliott initiated regular updating of website programs and services.
Receiving 27 points for first place print in a 2010 nature competition, Jim Lamont became the third club member to win promotion to Master’s level.
Photo Club activities expanded in scope and complexity as membership numbers grew, reaching a record peak of 320 in 2012-13. While club spending was kept well within revenues, demand increased for higher contributions toward upkeep of the parent RA Centre. Positive steps toward meeting this goal included increased recruitment, studio usage fees and sponsorship of Focus series workshops by leading photographers. Updating of club by-laws reflected a decision to expand its numbers by bringing all 24 activity group leaders within the executive council.
Evolution of studio services was nurtured by a succession of managers spending countless hours setting up, maintaining and replacing lighting equipment, backdrop and other needed accessories. Three different rooms on the second floor of the RA Centre were used over the years before the Studio moved to the basement quarters in the Rideau Room. Managers in recent decades have included Eric Cottee, Barry Thoms, Menno Spijker, Dave Elden and Glenn Worton.
Dramatic renewal and expansion of studio operation has been made under the leadership of current Studio Manager Richard Whitbread, following renovations that allowed its return to the Rideau Room. An ambitious series of workshops boosted Studio membership to a record high 86 while launching innovative intern and mentoring programs.
Significant growth occurred in the participation by members in photo exhibits outside the Photo Club. One exhibit at the Ottawa Public Library presented the work of 35 club members. Groups of members and some former members, such as Dante Was Here, exhibited at several venues, including the Shenkman Art Gallery in Orleans as part of the city-wide Festival X presentations program. Leslie Hossack held several exhibits of her photographic studies of iconic structures in such major cities such as Paris and Berlin and, in “Cities of Stone, People of Dust,” in Israel. Further opportunities arose when club print-makers held a solo exhibit, and took part in joint exhibits, at the city of Ottawa’s new Archives Gallery on Tallwood Drive.
Ongoing print exhibits in the RA Photo Club Gallery were augmented by the installation of a TV screen, thus introducing a digital gallery. Creation of a gallery and exhibitions committee signalled the growing importance of these initiatives.
Bill McCloskey, retiring after three years as chairperson, highlighted the “exceptional vibrancy that exists in the Club and the astonishingly large number of volunteers who make it all work.” By spring 2014, membership stood at 294, still one of the largest in Canada; Tuesday evening programs drew large member turnouts and, in exit poll surveys, were quite well received; the various special interest groups conducted highly active programs; and competitions demonstrated that the club continued to be home to a large number of exceptionally gifted photographers.
The club executive has accepted a formidable new challenge in agreeing to host the Canadian Camera Conference in the last week of June 2017, immediately preceding national celebrations to mark the 150th anniversary of Confederation. RAPC leaders are committed to matching the success of conferences hosted by the club in 1998 and 2003. Planning is under direction of Dave Haggarty, who spearheaded both previous conferences, and later served as president of its sponsoring body, the Canadian Association for Photographic Art (CAPA).
The RA Photo Club’s 75th anniversary year in 2014-2015 is an ideal opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the past, and to welcome whatever challenges the future may bring.
How It All Began: The Story Behind the History
Compilation of the RA Photo Club history owes its origins to Hans Foerstel who, as Club Historian, nourished for several years the idea of creating such a publication. Realizing the difficulty of doing so despite a paucity of written club records, he obtained access to the RA archive set of the RA News from the 1940s to 1993. He combed all available monthly issues for reports, articles and photographs contributed by the Camera Club (as it was called until 1983), and after that, the Photo Club. Finally, he painstakingly photographed all of these reports, cropped/sharpened/renamed the black and white images, and recorded them on a CD.
The task of writing the text for the RAPC history fell to Nix Wadden, whose interest stemmed from a communications background and ten years’ experience in editing the Photo Club newsletter. Reading through the photographed RA News reports made it relatively easy to track significant club events and activities for the years in which those reports were available. For the years since 1993, regular club newsletters and, since 2010, website blogs amply covered club activities. As a result, writing a historical account consisted largely of cut and paste extraction of reports from these sources. In addition, recollections of past club members proved invaluable in fleshing out stories of photo club doings and highlighting the important role played by individual members.
Joy McDonell ably provided top level editing expertise earned during an editing career in government and a five-year stint as editor of the Canadian Association for Photographic Art magazine, Canadian Camera. As a past club chairperson and nature group leader, she actively participated in club growth since the mid-1980s. Apart from checking, correcting and revising text drafts, she devoted much of her time and effort to chasing down photos, fulfilling a commitment to divide magazine content as equally as possible between text and visuals. Early days photos proved highly difficult to find, as very few original prints survived.
Deep appreciation is due to members and past members too numerous to mention who generously provided information, recollections and comments which did much to inject the human touch into accounts of developments great and small in the RA Photo Club story. Ongoing support from the RAPC executive, particularly past chair Bill McCloskey, and from RA staff members, particularly Jane Proudfoot, Sharron Malott, Andrea Barchard and Isabelle DaSilva, has been especially crucial to the success of this venture.
CELEBRATING 75 YEARS:PART 1
CELEBRATING 75 YEARS:PART 2
CELEBRATING 75 YEARS:PART 3
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