What follows is a very brief history of the early years of our club, based on Terry Carpenter’s President’s Message in the December 2010 edition of The Viewfinder.

In the early 80s three young men, Jim Quirk, Bob Stockton, and Len Lowe were attending a photography course at Sir Sandford Fleming College. When this class ended they all felt that a photography club was needed in Peterborough. Len brought in an OMC Photographer/graphic artist by the name of Bob Brown. Hence the birth of a great camera club: The Peterborough Photographic Society. In the first few months the camera club grew at an astonishing speed with over 120 members. In the early years the club joined with an organization called NAPA (National Association for Photographic Art¹), which greatly helped with speakers, etc.

I joined the club when it was, I believe, in its second year. Shortly after, I was elected Vice-President and became President thereafter. In 1985 we hosted Camera Canada College². This was a project where members of various clubs across Canada came to Peterborough to attend different workshops and outings held over several days. This was a huge undertaking for a relatively young club as ours with the job of arranging speakers, workshops, outings, and also the need to organize meals and lodgings, etc. The different committees headed by a gentleman called Jim Nighswander made the whole program a huge success. Our club also presented, with great success, such speakers as Freeman Patterson and Dr. Peter Van Rijhn.

At our monthly meetings we used to have slide and print competitions with judges brought in to evaluate our work. These results were taken very seriously by our members eager to absorb as much knowledge as possible. Ribbons were handed out at each monthly meeting for first, second, third, and honourable mention for different categories of Nature, General, etc., for slides and prints. At the end of the year a banquet was held where trophies were presented for the different categories and also a large trophy cup was awarded to the photographer of the year. This was given to the member who had attained the most points throughout the year.

The Peterborough Photographic Society is now nearly 30 years old and is still going strong. I feel this is quite an accomplishment and all due to four new photographers with a vision of a camera club in Peterborough. We owe much gratitude to those four: Len Lowe, Jim Quirk, Bob Brown, and Bob Stockton. I remember the hours of work required from these people in the early years. But also we need to remember the work that their wives put in. Carol Quirk, Joanne Stockton, Wynn Lowe, and Gail Brown who helped out at meetings, offered their homes for get-togethers and judging sessions, and much more behind the scenes.