Club Reports

WCPF Permanent Print Collection

16 January 2008

At the meeting on January 16th, club members had the opportunity to see a selection of mainly mono prints taken and printed through the decades and to see how techniques had changed. The images shown were from the Western Counties Photographic Federation Permanent Print Collection, the earliest prints dating back to 1956 and coming almost up to the present day.

There were many timeless prints in this collection but it was interesting to see how fashions and culture had changed in this comparatively short period of time. In particular was the photograph of children enjoying themselves on their bikes in the park, a sight that is now seen less and less and, even more, the care that has to be taken in photographing children in today’s environment!

Most of the mono prints were in as good condition today as on the day they were taken. Overall the colour prints, generally of a slightly later vintage, had, to some extent, deteriorated a little.

The prints were shown and commented on by experienced club members with many helpful and interesting comments on the techniques used to produce such high quality work in the days before digital photography and computers. Although there was far less technology available to photographers some 50 years ago, it was generally felt that many of the images would more than hold their own today.