ACCRINGTON Camera Club
HE may be a familiar face, but most members learned something about club president Ian Kitchin that they didn’t know during our annual president’s night on Friday.
Ian chose to show some old slides, the earliest going back to the 1960s, which took us through his early days of photography as a child and at university in Sheffield.
Ian has always taken a lot of his photos local to his home in Rishton and as well as some early shots he also showed a panel of 15 large prints he had made over the years which he recently submitted to the Disabled Photographers Society.
Ian, who is partially sighted, was successful in being awarded the title Associate of the Disabled Photographers Society (ADPS) after submitting the pictures on the subject ‘Within one mile of home’ and having them assessed in a similar way to that of the Royal Photographic Society awards.
The subjects included landscapes, buildings, trains and people.
Ian had explained previously that the idea for the theme came about because he wanted to make the point that: “It was not necessary to visit the Grand Canyon or make an African safari to find varied and challenging subjects which yield interesting and stimulating images.”
The pictures can be found on his website www.iankitchin.talktalk. net. We also had correspondence recently from none other than the Duke of Edinburgh after vice-president Harry Emmett sent a retirement card following the duke’s decision to cease carrying out public duties at the age of 96.
It may sound like a random thing to do but the royal is actually an honorary member of the club after being invited to submit prints to our annual exhibition in 1977 in celebration of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.
Well known for taking photographs at the time and also president of the World Wildlife Fund, he prepared a number of framed monochrome prints of pictures he had taken during a trip photographing birds on the Hilbre Islands in the Dee estuary and they were included in the exhibition that year.
Our annual exhibition this year is still on at Haworth Art Gallery until July 30.
There are almost 120 prints on the walls and a collection of digital images featuring all sorts of styles and subjects.
Please go along and support us.
Our meeting tonight (Friday) is the last of the season and is an AV (audio visual) competition, just for fun.
The club then breaks for the summer and reconvenes on September 1, when annual competition projected images judge Graham Currey will give his thoughts on the ones which scored well.
Our meetings are on Fridays at the Primetime Centre, Stourton Street, Rishton, starting at 7.45pm. Visitors and prospective members most welcome.
More information at accringtoncameraclub.org.uk