EPS Wednesday Meetings - Overview

1990s

Photography and Art

During the 1990s, several meetings were arranged with students and artists, to compare and contrast different methods of photography and art.  Joint meetings were held with:

-  Students from Telford College

-  Students from the Edinburgh College of Art

-  Colin Cavers of Stills Gallery

-  Members of the Edinburgh Sketching Club

Several Wednesday evenings were devoted to Audio-Visual shows - typically with a few short sequences being shown each evening.

Lecture Titles

Sometimes, the subject was clear from the title in the EPS Syllabus, as with:

-  The Falklands

-  Nature Photography 

-  The Galapagos

-  Russian Mountains

-  Deserts and Wildlife

On other occasions, it was less clear, as in:

-  Amateur Gynaecology for Beginners

Here, the title was chosen to attract attention:  the show had no connection with gynaecology!

Several of the slides and print lecturers bringing chose titles which left the possible subject matter unclear - perhaps using a play on their own names for the title of their lecture:

-  A Country Lane            [Mike Lane]

-  That Old Black Magic   [Jane Black]

On other occasions, the subject became clear when the lecture was given, as in:

-   Pigs CAN fly.

Here, the lecturer was showing slides taken by a member of Strathclyde Police Force, while on duty in the Police helicopter.

Panels of Prints

There were lectures showing a series of documentary slides or prints.

Others lecturers gave advice to EPS Members who were considering submitting Panels for Royal Photographic Society Distinctions:

-  The Road to LA    [Glyn Edmunds]

In this case, 'LA' that Glyn referred to was gaining LRPS and ARPS distinctions.

The Press

Stewart Boyd, Picture Editor of The Scotsman. had taken an interest in EPS activities for many years, and included reports of EPS Members' Exhibitions and International Exhibitions in The Scotsman.  

On his retirement, in 1993, his lecture gave a fascinating insight into changes that he had seen throughout his career:

-  35 Years before the Masthead

Professional Photographers

A speaker whose family has an even longer association with EPS - over 100 years - is the Edinburgh professional photographer, Trevor Yerbury. 

He presented his work, including his photography of nudes, in a lecture simply entitled:

-  Portraiture

He brought with him - a panel of his prize-winning prints, a collection of slides and one of his models (fully dressed).

Nature and Travel

As in earlier years, there were opportunities to see slides and prints of wildlife, birds and butterflies from around the world.  

Travels included Iceland, Greenland, the Galapagos Islands, the Everglades and the Amazon.

On a single evening in 1998, Cath Mullen’s lecture included slides from her travels to Ayers Rock in Australia, the Badlands of Arizona, Bali, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, an Indian Camel Fair,  a valley in Nepal, the Serengeti Plain, and the Ngorongoro Crater, the Seychelles and Singapore!

Still Life

Members had the opportunity to had the opportunity to see the work of EPS Member, Peter Carruthers, and to learn about how he created his still life models, including lunar landscapes, when he gave his lecture entitled: 

-  Table Tops.

Speakers from Overseas

EPS invited overseas lecturers and judges to give lectures whilst they were in Scotland.  These included:

-  A Dutch Master  [Gus Van Gent;  Holland]

-  Creative Montage with Colour Transparencies  [Lip Seng; Hong Kong]

Digital Imaging

Very few lectures in the 1990s dealt with traditional developing and printing methods.  However, beginning in the late 1990s, a new subject emerged:

-  Computer Aided Photographer  [including hands-on with computer]

-  Creative Computing for Photographers

These lectures dealt with both the equipment and methods now becoming available, at a time of increasing interest in digital imaging, and at a time when EPS was establishing its own Digital Imaging Group.