MORPETH CAMERA CLUB (Published Feb 2009)
Morpeth has had a camera club since the early part of the 20th century, and has been involved with the Northern Counties Photographic Federation since its inauguration in 1901, Mr J Whittle, an early club member, was the Federation Secretary between 1907 and 1912.
The present club was reformed as the Morpeth YMCA Camera Club in May 1948 with 20 members. The club met in the YMCA reading rooms and had access to a darkroom. With its intention to "promote the advancement of photography", the club held 6 competitions in its initial year. One of the founder members was Mr Arthur Wood, a local garage owner, who provided several trophies for competition between the members. After the club left the YMCA to become Morpeth Camera Club in the mid eighties, these trophies were lost, but due to the wonder of the digital age, about 5 years ago, putting the club name into Google, showed the Arthur Wood Intermediate Print Shield in all its glory being advertised for sale in America for $75!
The club has had reasonable success through the years in Interclub and external competitions, perhaps two of the highlights being when it won The Corder Trophy for monochrome prints in 1983, and represented the Federation in the PAGB Colour Slide finals at Warwick in 1996. The club is usually well represented by individual members in Federation Competitions and several club members, regularly gain acceptances in International Salons, both here and abroad.
Current membership, perhaps due to the introduction of digital photography, is in the low thirties, with a regular attendance at the weekly meetings in the upper twenties. Meetings are held each week between September and April in St George's Church, and survived the recent floods in Morpeth, even though the nave of the church was flooded to a depth of two feet, because we use an upstairs room.
Vince Rooker ARPS, DPAGB, EFIAP, APAGB