EPS Wednesday Meetings - Overview

1940s

Regular Subjects

Regular subjects in the EPS Syllabus in the 1940s were:

-  “Gadgets”

-  “Bring Your Troubles”

-   Meeting of Portfolio Contributors and others interested

-   Showing of Lantern Slides by Members

-   Ciné Night

-   Quiz Night  [1946 and 1947]

The War Years

Lectures continued throughout the War Years, 1939 to1945, following an announcement in 1939 that:

“a modified Syllabus is being arranged.  Each month, a Meeting will be held on the Wednesday nearest the full moon, so that members will be able to attend with the minimum of inconvenience”.

In April 1941, T H Gillespie was scheduled to present a lecture and film to EPS, but Mr MacLucas stood in for him, announcing that:

“T H Gillespie the lecturer for the evening is unable to attend as he cannot leave the Zoo after nightfall under present conditions”

Travel and Landscape

Travel lectures featured prominently in the syllabus throughout  the decade. About half of these lectures featured Scotland;  others featured the Alps, India, Africa and New Zealand. 

The African lecture was given by T R Yerbury, one of a line of Yerbury  photographers who have been associated with EPS since its early days.

In 1943, John Trail led a debate:  

-  Is There a Future for Landscape Photography?   

The general opinion of the meeting was “Yes”

Other Subjects

As in previous years, lectures were given on:

-  Lantern slide making 

-  Bromoil

-  Ciné photography 

New subjects becoming more popular were:

- Miniature Photography

- exhibitions of slides form RPS and elsewhere

- sponsored lectures and films - particularly from Kodak.

Most of the advice on processing was given in a series of monthly Practical Nights held in the winter from 1943 until 1946.