TONY POTTER ARPS, DPAGB (Published March 2004)
Tony Potter's interest in photography began as a 16 year old. He was working in a tyre factory and the manager took him to an agricultural show and lent Tony his camera, which was a Vito BL. The manager then told him to develop the film. When he explained that he had never developed a film before, the manager decided to send Tony to an evening class at the local technical college to learn how to develop film and this skill has been with him ever since.
Photography for Tony has always been a hobby and a great love affair with all parts of photography - whether it is cameras, pictures, processing even slides - he obtains great enjoyment from all aspects of photography.
Club photography for Tony started when he came to live in West Cumbria in 1974 and obtained employment with the National Health Service. Quite by chance Tony was having his dinner in the Blue Dolphin Fish and Chip Shop in Workington, a very busy time in the cafe. Across the table was a young couple and the man was reading the Amateur Photographer. Tony and the couple started to talk and the man introduced himself as Les Harris. Les suggested that he may like to come to Maryport Camera Club. Tony had a long association with Maryport Camera Club (alas no more). It was the only club Tony was involved with for almost 25 years. During his time at Maryport Camera Club, Tony held almost every office in the club and was secretary for most of that time.
Leaving Maryport Camera Club some five or six years ago, due to a heavy work pressure and a growing dissatisfaction with camera club life - as he says, week after week the same old routine. There were several members in the West Coast area had tried to discuss the idea of combining clubs, if not in entirety then at least to share some evenings to try and get more satisfaction from camera club life, but unfortunately they found that change equals catastrophe!
It was at this time Tony and a few other people decided to start the West Cumbria Photo Group. The West Cumbria Photo Group is open to all photographers - it is not a formal club as such as they only meet every few weeks and members can be members of this and other traditional camera clubs.
Over the years Tony's interest in photography has grown and apart from Bromoil there have been very few aspects of photography he has not tried. Tony's main interest is in prints and he finds the digital part of photography another revelation, after getting his hands wet for over forty years now. Tony has only been doing Digital Photography since November and he really loves it. Tony does find slides a little bit of a bore.
Tony is very fond of cameras and over the years he has had most makes from 35 mm to 5 x 4 and everything between, he still has his collection of Leica Cameras which are a joy to use. These cameras do not sit in a cupboard but they are all used. He also has a large collection of medium format equipment and his pride and joy is the "new" ALPA with its large format lenses and multi format backs ("new" as against the old 35 mm ALPA). It is rare for Tony not to have a camera with him.
As Tony says, he admires all types of pictures and when travelling he takes lots of pictures of people. Another love of Tony's is documentary photography and he greatly admires the work of Sebastiao Salgado. Tony enjoys looking at exhibitions.
A pet hate of Tony's is organised photography and its committees and nepotism as he believes that photography is about pictures not about power and glory. In Tony's opinion competitions are all right as long as they are a means to improving the hobby and developing the interest. Unfortunately they can degenerate into being a painful experience. In his opinion winning is always great but competing is better and a competition judge should not in his view judge more competitions than he or she enters.
Future plans for Tony include another attempt to obtain a Royal Fellowship, having been turned down previously. Although it is a lot of effort, he feels that he gains a great deal just by doing the work. Tony has now retired and his future plans are to travel and take pictures. He is very grateful to all those friends who over the years have made this hobby real fun and a life saver for him at times. The future for Tony, well he just wants to keep taking pictures.
Long may he have pleasure taking his pictures.
Editor