Cape Camera August September 2015

CAPE CAMERAAugust-September 2015Official Newsletter of the

Cape Town Photographic Society

President’s message 2News flashes 3 E&D News 4 AGM news 5Detlef Basel 6

Malcolm Jones 8Competition news 10Competition photos 11Past salons 14Anniversary Salon 15

Finding a home 16Memorable members 19AV Showcase 22PSSA congress 23Diary of events 24

In this issue

August & September 2015 - 2 -

www.ctps.co.za • Copyright 2014 • Cape Town Photographic Society

Much has happened since last I wrote for Cape Camera.

The exhibition in ArtsCape has been taken down, but the many people who visited the exhibition expressed their admira-tion for what Pat had put together. We thank you Pat, for all your time and effort.

During our August outing to Post-berg, the flowers were at their best. Who but Pat could have made sure that the weather was perfect!

The schools’ salon closed on 31 August and the CTPS 125th Anni-versary Salon is now open for en-tries (see p15). Our thanks go to Lesley Parolis and Jacoba van Zyl for coordinating the schools’ salon and we are looking forward to see-ing the winning entries.

The AV evening this month went well and I was pleased with the good turnout. Antenie Carstens gave us a very interesting demonstration of how AV’s were shown in the days before computers, using six projectors to pro-ject slides in time to music. A big thank you to Nellian, who so ably ran the show, and of course, Pat, thank you for the catering of snacks and wine (see more p22).

This would be my last president’s page for the current

President’s message

On the cover

Monthly meetingsMonthly meetings are held in the St Stephens Church Hall in Pine-lands at 7pm.

1st Wednesday: Competition 2nd Wednesday: Audio-visual 3rd Wednesday: Education & De-velopment.

CTPS Contact details:Website: www.ctps.co.zaEmail: [email protected] : www.facebook.com/groups/1530153687246454.

council term year — and for that, my last as your president.

I must say that I have enjoyed working for you, and in no way will I disappear off the radar.

I have made many friends and value this. Over the past eight years that I have been at the helm, there have been many members who joined the club, but also oth-ers who left for one or other rea-son.

This is what happens in any soci-ety. People relocate, which makes it difficult to keep up membership numbers in the club.

I thank all members for their sup-port and wish you all well in your journey with your camera in hand.

I hope to have more time on my hands and I will be subjecting you to some of my images in our

monthly competitions. I just need time to acquaint my-self with all the technicalities involved with photo vault.

Wishing you all well and I hope to see you at the AGM.Yours in photography,

Detlef Basel Hon PSSA; APSSA

( Read the interview with Detlef on page 6)

President Detlef BaselVice-president Nicol du ToitDevelopment & Education Pat ScottHonorary Secretary Jacoba van ZylHonorary Treasurer Nicol du Toit

Property Manager Richard GoldschmidtCompetitions Convenor Lesley ParolisAudio-visual Convenor Robert MaginleyPublications Officer Trudi du ToitWebsite Lesley Parolis

CTPS council members

The Salon Print Open winner and PSSA senior entry in August was Reflections from a Ferry (28) by Jeanette du Toit. This image of people on a ferry was taken in Zambia, says Jeanette. See shot a lot of images because the people and surroundings were so colourful, and this scene captured that spirit. “The reflection was so good and clear that I didn’t need the rest of the image to tell the story. You can see everything that is important in the reflection.”

- 3 - August & September 2015


Cape Camera pdfs on CDTHiS iS the last Cape Camera edited by the current publications officer — the next issue, publication frequency, future deadlines, etc. will be decided by the Publications Officer elected for the 2015/16 term.

We shall make the nine Cape Camera issues published between October 2014 and September 2015 (this issue) available as .pdfs on a CD to mem-bers who pre-order.Price: R15 eachContact: Trudi du Toit at [email protected]. Please supply your name, telephone number and email address.Closing date for orders: 23 October, 2015.

CTPS news flashes

Neels Beyers received EPSSA honours at the PSSA Congress in Swellendam for having at least 500 acceptances in national and international salons.

CTPS members receive their PSSA honours

Alicia Greyling received a PSSA meritori-ous award for services to photography, also beyond the club sphere. She was unable to attend the PSSA congress and received her award from Detlef Basel at the AV evening.

Nellian Bekker received her LPSSA (Licentiate-ship) in AV from outgoing PSSA president Jill Sneesby at the PSSA Congress in Swellendam, while Antenie Carstens (below) received a Fel-lowship in Applied at the same event.

New membersCTPS has gained three new members: Sean Neethling, Elinor Muller and Chris Coetzee. Welcome to them all! We now have 146 paid and honorary life members.

Month Competition AV E & DSeptember 2 9 16 October 7 14 21October 30 Gala DinnerNovember 4 11 18November 6 InterclubDecember 2 9 No E&D

Important dates for 2015

Points needed for Gold Silver RedSalon 24 20 16Advanced 22 18 14intermediate 20 16 12Beginner 18 14 10

• Beginner to intermediate: 3 gold awards & 30 points• intermediate to Advanced: 5 gold awards & 40 points• To Salon: 5 gold & 30 points in club competitions & 30 in salon acceptances / or 50 gold awards.Points awarded in club competitions count as follows: Gold = 3, Silver = 2, Red =1. Salon acceptances = 3 .

Awards and promotionsThere are no members that were promoted to a higher level in August/September.The following are the requirements to be promoted from one level to the next:

Albums created for CTPS outings Please submit 1-5 images of CTPS organised outings to the albums on Photovault under the heading My Club Entries/CTPS 125 year celebrations that you wish to share for use in Cape Camera or the AV’s made by Robert Maginley and the AV group, and for any promotional use by CTPS of our 125 celebrations.



E&D talk on the impact of photos after the AGM THE AGM on Wednesday 16 September will be followed by a discussion by Sandra Maytham-Bailey, director of the Cape Town School of Photography (CTSP), of images that have made an impact in history. She will be posing the question: Where to from here.

While many people believe that the Sam Nzima picture of a dying Hector Pieterson carried by his sister changed South Africa’s political landscape, Maytham-Bailey believes that Peter Magubane’s images from the Soweto uprising collec-tively remain the most poignant apartheid era photographs to this day, as she was quoted in an article titled Photogra-phers’ Perspectives on the life and times of the South Afri-can image and where it’s taking us that was published in the Rhodes Journalism Review in August 2014.

“I also think that the earlier images from the Women’s March in 1956 started the pressure for reform – an unforget-table sight of women standing peacefully shoulder to shoul-

JEANETTE Du TOiT got another Certificate of Merit (COM) and three acceptances in the Westville Salon.

She got the COM in the Landscapes category for De Hoop Dune Detail.

She got acceptances for the following images:Nature — excluding birds: The Catch of the Day Landscapes: First Light Human Portraits: Natural Beauty

CTPS news flashesRPS and PSSA presidents to attend CTPS anniversaryThE 125Th birthday of CTPS on October 30th will be attended by two illustrious guests.

Walter Benzie (left), the newly elected presi-dent of the Royal Photographic Society, is a UK chartered accountant who also has ties to Cape Town. He will be visiting for about a week during which he will attend our gala dinner.

Francois Rousseau (right) from Midrand Pho-tographic Club became PSSA president when Jill Sneesby’s term of office came to an end at this year’s PSSA Congress. He served as PSSA vice-president for a number of years. He also accept-ed our invitation to attend the dinner.

View from the Hotel School terrace

Book NOW for gala dinnerCTPS MEMBERS are urged to book their seats for the 125th Anniver-sary Gala Dinner as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. There are unfortunately only 80 seats available for the event held at the Granger Bay Hotel School in Greenpoint on 30 October this year — exactly 125 years after the inaugural meeting held in the St George’s Grammar School in 1890. And it is filling up fast!

Please notify Pat Scott at [email protected] if you want to at-tend and have not yet entered your name on the list.

• Cost: R150 per member and R200 per non-member• Bookings: Pat Scott at [email protected]• Dress: At least jacket and tie (for gents), smart for ladies

der. We have such a rich visual history that it almost seems unfair that we default to one iconic image,” she was quoted in the same article.

She is also quoted as saying: “... we are sitting at an interest-ing juncture of how we use images to educate, and the chal-lenge this holds as the clutter explodes for both educators and practitioners. Our history has been richly captured by photog-raphers through the years yet the same images are perpetuat-ed in textbooks. Scholars are not taught to interrogate images or to be curious about the messages.”

Advertising world

Maytham-Bailey graduated from Rhodes University in 1986 with a degree in photo-journalism, and later obtained a mas-ters degree in documentary photography from the University of Cape Town. She currently lectures in visual literacy at the School of Photography.

Another Certificate of Merit for Jeanette du Toit



E&D talk on the impact of photos after the AGM

Have your say at the CTPS AGMMEMBERS ARE reminded to attend the CTPS annual general meeting at 7pm on 16 September — or, alternatively, use the proxy form supplied that was emailed to members. Email vot-ing preferences to the secretary [email protected].

Members will be asked to vote on a change to the constitu-tion to change our investment strategy from investing in prop-erty, to investing in mutual funds and shares following the selling of our property at 28 Jarvis Street. The proposal reads:

“The proceeds from the sale of 28 Jarvis Street should be in-vested as a long term investment with the goal of providing income for the society. Capital growth of CPI inflation, as per Statistics SA, (hereafter called the capital portion), should be al-lowed for. The balance of the growth in the investment (hereaf-ter called the income portion) can be utilised for the benefit of the members. It will be council’s responsibility to consult with legitimate and recognised advisors (including a FSB registered advisor) before determining the investment strategy. While the income portion is available for use by the Society as decided by the Council at a properly constituted meeting, the capital por-tion cannot be utilised unless approved by 75% of members pre-sent in person and by proxy at a general meeting.”

Two year term for new council

A new council will be elected at the AGM. As no formal nomi-nations had been received, nominations from the floor will be accepted.

At the 2014 AGM members voted in favour of a constitution-al change that council members will in future be elected for a two year term of office and that the president will not serve more than two terms in succession. In order to have conti-nuity, half the members shall be elected in one year, and the other half in the other year.

This year, continuity will be ensured by several council mem-bers who are making themselves available for re-election. In the previous council the position of PRO was not filled after Steffne Hughes resigned and the position for Outings Conven-or was not filled because members had already volunteered to organise outings to celebrate the 125th Anniversary.

These council members are available for re-election (al-though not necessarily for the position they formerly held) :

• Detlef Basel, who will not be eligible to stand as president, but is available for election as an ordinary member (see more p6);

• Nicol du Toit, who served as vice-president (for one year) and treasurer for three years;

• Jacoba van Zyl, who served as secretary for three years;

• Richard Goldschmidt, who served as proper-ty manager for several years;

• Lesley Parolis, who served as competitions convenor for three years and adopted the re-sponsibilities of webmaster when we experi-enced problems this year;

• Robert Maginley, who served as AV convenor. He will not be able to attend the AGM as he is currently in the UK, but has confirmed his availability to stand for council.

The following members are not available for re-election:• Pat Scott, who took responsibility for E&D, selecting judges

and organised most of the 125 year celebrations;• Trudi du Toit, who was publications officer.

After graduation she joined the Young & Rubicam advertising agency as an account executive and later also worked as ac-count director at Berge Farrell International, a Strategic Brand Design Consultancy. Since she resigned from the advertising and marketing world in 2007, she has been devoting her time and talents to photography. She also works as a freelancer.

A former activist during the 1980’s, she believes in the pow-er of that one iconic image to change perceptions. She has posted several photo-journalism essays on people in Cape Flats communities on Flickr ( see www.flickriver.com/photos/sandy_bailey). Through her photos of the gardens in Lavender Hill she, for example, shows a different side of the people who live in drug-ridden suburb.

She has also published a book titled Kranskop, recording her expectations, feelings and adventures experienced during a road trip to this farm on the border of Northern KwaZulu Natal and the Free State in 2009 (left).



Nearly 50 years of service

D etlef Basel has been serving South African amateur photographic societies for close to fifty years. When his term of office as CTPS president comes to an end at the AGM on the 16th, he would have been serving on pho-

tographic association committees, boards and councils for 48 years — and as he will be available for re-election as an ordinary council member, he will, no doubt, hit the half century mark in 2017.

Detlef was elected CTPS president at the AGM in 2007 and dur-ing the past eight years steered the society back to a vibrant, active organisation with more than 140 paid up members, after membership had dwindled to 40 paid members with meeting attendance sometimes as low as ten, in the early 2000’s.

Before that, he served on the committee of the Pretoria Photographic Society for 38 years, including three sessions of two years as president — their constitution set a limit on presidential terms.

In fact, four months after he joined in April 1967, he was elected president — in absentia. His unexpected election was prompt-ed by the interest he had shown in assisting beginners and new members in the club — a natural interest after running photo-graphic clubs at the schools where he had taught for 40 years. Detlef had agreed to serve on the committee, but was away from Pretoria when the AGM was held where he became president.

Apart from the long years serving on the Pretoria society com-mittee, Detlef served on the PSSA board for 25 years as salon director, and one year as vice-president during the late 1970’s. He was the Pretoria club salon director when the PSSA asked him to join the board.

Awarded for service

He not only judged quite a few salons in Pretoria, but he also got about 300 salon acceptances in slides as well as prints to become a 4-Diamond worker in both prints and slides.

During the time he served on the PSSA board, he was awarded an APSSA (Associate of the PSSA) for service in the mid-1980’s and honorary life membership in the 1970’s. He was also award-ed life membership by the Pretoria Photographic Society and this year at the De Hoop Congress, when he turned 80, CTPS awarded him honorary life membership.

A fitting reward after 70 years as a photographer. Detlef still has some of the negatives and prints he took with

the Box Brownie camera he received as a ten year old. In high school he started developing his own films — a practice he kept up well into the colour era — and at the University of Pieterma-ritzburg he also developed films for other people. A precursor of the time when the one-hour labs only took in colour films to develop and Detlef saw a commercial opportunity in collecting the black-and-white films from eight labs to develop and print.

One of six boys who grew up on a farm in Southern Natal, his fa-ther couldn’t afford to send him to university to study agriculture

as he wished to, and instead Detlef got a bursary to study for a teacher’s diploma. “Once I started teaching, I enjoyed it so much that thought this was a divine choice,” he says.

He was five months old when the Basel family came to South Africa from Germa-

ny before the Second World War. They spoke German at home and the boys learnt Zulu from playing with the labourers’ chil-dren, but when they went to school they had to learn English, and later also Afrikaans.

Despite growing up so multi-lingual, it was science, not lan-guages, which interested him.

Interest in science

His first post in 1960 was as a science master at a Durban school, where he promptly started a photographic club and set up a darkroom used by the pupils during the day and by himself at night. He had always been interested in drama and during this time he starred in a Passion Play in the Durban City Hall, where he was so grateful for the kind and capable way his make-up was done by a girl named Barbara, that he wanted to give her a spe-cial gift. “I couldn’t think what to give her, so I asked her to marry me,” he says.

In December they will celebrate their 53rd wedding anniver-sary. The Basels obviously marry for keeps as his five brothers will all celebrate their golden wedding anniversaries within a four year period.

A week after Barbara accepted his proposal, Detlef had to start his tenure as head of the science department at a school in Ndo-

After eight years, Detlef Basel’s term of office as CTPS president comes to an end at the AGM on 16th September. He looks back on 70 years of photography and nearly 50 years of serving amateur photography in South Africa

He also got about 300 salon ac-ceptances in slides as well as prints to become a 4-Diamond worker in both prints and slides



la, in what is now Zambia. In those days it was part of the British Protectorate of Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Nyasaland (Malawi). Barbara joined him there and in December of that year they were married.

Again, one of the first things he did at the school in Ndola was to start a photographic club. In 1965, after the protectorate was disbanded, they relocated to Pretoria — and yes, Detlef again started a photographic club at St Alban’s school where he headed the science department. He taught there for 34 years.

Apart from starting a photographic club, he also coached rugby and cricket, ran a pottery club with 90 boys mix-ing their own glazes an using their four kilns, and started a mountain club who climbed in the Magaliesberg every second weekend. He also got awarded Northern Transvaal colours for life-saving and coached swimming. Other clubs he ran at the school were the German club and the young farmers’ club.

Between 1980-84 he took a group of boys on trips to the Fish River Canyon, Etosha and the Okavango Delta (when it cost 1 pula per day per person) until it became too expensive. He also took groups of boys on year-end hikes to the Drakensberg or the lowveld.

Join Pretoria Photographic Society

“I wanted to learn more about photography — how cameras worked, and other technical aspects — and joined the Pretoria Photographic Society in April 1967,” he recounts. By August he was president.

His photographic tastes are “pretty catholic,” says Detlef. “I en-joyed landscapes and portraits. I did weddings as well — about 2 000 — which made good money.” He also earned money by go-ing round to restaurants in Arcadia to take photos of people din-ing out. He continued using slides as others moved to the digital medium. “In end I was only one doing slides and they didn’t want to put up the projector any more.

In 1998 Detlef reached retirement age at the school, but, the Museum of Science and Technology offered him a job. Barbara was busy completing her doctorate in English at the University of Pretoria. Born in an era when it wasn’t considered necessary for girls to study, she remedied this later in life by obtaining diplo-mas in drama teaching from Trinity College in London, a BA from

UNISA, an MA from Potchefstroom University and her doctorate from Tukkies on Pieter-Dirk Uys/ Evita’s use of satire.

At St Alban’s College Detlef had a school house and they real-ised that once he retired they would have no property. In about 1969 the Basel’s built a holiday home in Uvongo for when they retired. But, as the children grew up and went their own ways, they started visiting Cape Town, where their son was based, more often than Uvongo. Cape Town therefore became their re-tirement destination and in 1993 they bought a retirement house here, where they currently live.

In 2005, when Detlef turned 70 , they moved to Cape Town. At the AGM in 2007 he was elect-ed CTPS president.

The Basels loved Cape Town. ‘You can do so much. The photographic possibilities are tre-

mendous,” he enthuses.

Many interests in Cape Town

He continued to serve: not only at CTPS, but also as church war-den, as in Ndola and in Pretoria. His interest and involvement in dramatic societies continued, for which he took many backstage photographs. Barbara became president of the Muizenberg Dra-matic Society and they also started attending concerts of the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra.

He was barely in Cape Town, before the Cape Town Science Centre asked to make use of his services. “Teaching is fun, but it wouldn’t have been if I had not taught science,” says Detlef.

At the MTN Science Centre he enjoys conducting science shows and magic experiments where things change colour. He does a lot of work in township schools, introducing the Grade 10, 11 and 12’s to the formal science experiments required by the curricu-lum through the mobile science centre (a truck equipped with all the materials needed that the average township school lacks).

“During the last few years there has been an incredible change of heart amongst the children,” he says. “They are keen, keen, keen as learners and ask such sensible questions. It is very en-couraging and satisfying. It keeps me young. One day when I’m old, I’ll retire.”

He hopes to have more time for his own photography now that he is retiring as president of CTPS, although he will still be much involved if he is again elected a member of council.

‘One day when I’m old, I’ll retire’ — Detlef Basel



A life inspired by designMalcolm Jones was the ideal person to lead the discussions on photography at the E&D meeting in August: he does not believe in judging pho-tographs, but strongly recommends discussing concepts, perceptions and the meaning the pho-tographer was trying to convey as a way of im-proving your photography. Photos: Nicol du Toit.

M alcolm Jones believes the club competition system damages the development of photography, but that meeting to discuss photographic concepts can far better guide members — especially beginners

— on how to improve their work. For example, when concepts like “what are you trying to say? Do you think your photograph portray that?” are discussed – not judged – photographers would be encouraged to be far more imaginative, instead of just follow-ing rules to get a good score, he believes.

“It should be more about what the photographer tried to achieve and how well did he succeed. If he did not succeed, how can one help him to achieve what he wanted to capture?” he says, lamenting that there is too much emphasis on a mark awarded, and too little on what the photographer intended. “A good photo talks to you – but not necessary immediately, and you might only understand it over time. But, somehow it has to communicate with you.”

Rules in photography are really recipes, short cutting the need for original creativity, he believes. Judges have to say something about a photograph in a very limited time. Judging is especially difficult when you only have a few seconds before you have to comment, and there is not much you can say other than refer to these recipes. The issues that the judge picks to comment on – like thirds, space on the side, etc. – tend to become emphasised and are seen to be preferred, and over time they become sharp-ened as so called rules of photography, he believes.

You might get a false indication of which photographs are good from judging, be-cause sometimes a judge, who has often come up through the club system himself, can be quite misguided, Malcolm contin-ues. “A lot of times people learn to know what judges like and structure their photographs accordingly.” This stifles the imagi-nation, he argues.

The cornerstones of photography — light, design, form and technical soundness – had also been crucial in his career as a pioneering architect. While this gave him the expertise to know a good composition when he sees it, he recommends that all photographers should be interested in other disciplines that have a strong design element: whether art, architecture, furni-ture, interior design, etc. Read as much as possible about all art forms, the development of photography and study the classic photographs, he recommends.

“Design is crucial in photography,” he says. “It’s not so much about what you see, it’s what you perceive. What you perceive depends on previous experiences stored in your mind. Often, the larger part of what you are trying to communicate remains

in your mind and is not communicated to an observer. It is im-portant to recognize this and try to include what will otherwise remain concealed in your mind, on the photograph – such as emotion. When you take a photo, the camera does not even record what you see, because the iris in one’s eye is adjusting all the time, and you can therefore see detail in highlights and

shadow. Not so with the aperture of the camera.”

Malcolm’s interest in photography started young, at about 14, when one of the science masters at Coalbrook-dale High School in the UK started a photography club and encouraged

the pupils to make pinhole cameras and their own developer and fixer. From the very first photo he took, Malcolm was push-ing the boundaries: he photographed a fly’s lungs on a micro-scope slide by attaching the pinhole camera to the microscope. “It came out superb, because I used the high quality Zeiss lens of the microscope.”

His photographic interest continued at Sheffield University, where he also had access to the university’s darkroom. But, a burglary that resulted in the theft of his camera put his photo-graphic endeavours on hold.

Good in science, maths and art – he did his A-levels in maths, applied maths and physics – his father recommended architec-ture as a career. A bit of a rebel and again pushing the bounda-ries, Malcolm chose to design a 410-bed NHS district general hos-pital as a final year project, mainly because no public hospitals had been built in the UK since before the war and Enoch Powell had announced a new hospital building programme for the coun-

Malcolm immersed himself in this environment that included these sculptors and painters, who were modern masters of form and design.



try. The fact that this would be a unique concept for which there was going to be a huge demand, inspired Malcolm to resubmit his proposal, even after his professor summarily turned it down. When he persisted, he was told that the department would not be responsible for the outcome because the project was much too big for a student.

He did receive help from other sources, including a scholar-ship to visit European hospitals to see new developments and from medical school lecturers who arranged for him to spend time at Sheffield hospitals to see how they functioned. The result was that the external examiners award-ed him a distinction for the project, and he got the university prize for the most distinguished student in the final examination.

He started his career in London by do-ing research for one of the Metropoli-tan Regional Hospital Boards, but was soon asked to join the architectural firm that was tasked to redevelop St Thomas Hospital, which was bombed during the war. He got the job of de-signing the ward block of the hospital.

Before this was completed, they were commissioned to design the new Ox-ford Academic Hospital. “You never build a hospital in one go because then all the funds for that area would be used up in one go,” he explains. They therefore did a development plan and as the first phase, designed the mater-nity wing, because it had to have bit of everything: wards, theatre, paediatrics, surgery, etc. This mater-nity wing was opened around 1970.

By then, Malcolm was working for Sir Leslie Martin, professor of architecture in Cambridge and friend to the leading UK mod-ern artists of the 1930’s, loosely known as The Hampstead Set. Above Malcolm’s desk hung a Ben Nicholson painting, Malcolm spent an inspiring evening with Naum Gabo when he visited and one of his sculptures, as well as works by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Picasso graced the 6-storey Victorian water mill that became the professor’s house and office.

Malcolm immersed himself in this environment that included these sculptors and painters, who were modern masters of form and design. “There is an interconnection between art and photography, but you need to know about the art movements to understand and appreciate it,” he says. This looking at forms would also later have an influence on his photography.

The very creative Sir Leslie, who was also the chief architect of the Royal Festival Hall in London, was an inspiring mentor. They relooked at more effective land use by placing buildings around courtyards. They also calculated that using this method, New York could be rebuilt with buildings of no more than ten stories providing the same floor space as well as 29 open squares.

In charge of Oxford Health Authority

In the early 1970’s Malcolm was appointed Chief Architect of the Oxford Regional Health Authority, which was responsible for all health buildings in Oxfordshire and three other counties.

While at Oxford he pioneered the development of the worlds first integrated computer aided design system. When designing a hospital, small details like the placement of washbasins, paper

towels, waste bins, toilets, etc. can take a lot of time — an ex-perienced designer would know the correct height, dimensions, etc. but new designers would have to start from scratch. Mal-colm decided to capture these elements in 3D designs and store them in a computer library, for use when needed by all design-ers. When the styles changed, only the library record needed to be updated, everything else followed automatically. This pio-

neering development of the world’s first integrated computer aided design system for hospitals, became known as OXSYS.

The Oxford Regional Health Authori-ty and Applied Research of Cambridge, an off-shoot of Cambridge University worked together on this project, which Malcolm laughingly refers to as “one of few known instances where Oxford and Cambridge cooperated.”

Then, on a cold February morning in 1977, Malcolm got a call from a mem-ber of a British trade delegation visit-ing Cape Town, where they learnt that two new hospitals being designed had both gone far over budget. Could Mal-colm fly out immediately and come and have a look? He did, and also met a member of the CSIR in Pretoria who invited him to deliver a paper at an international conference on hospital design in South Africa in November.

After delivering his paper, Malcolm sat in the audience next to an anea-thetist called Rosemarie, who was compiling the Health Trends in South

Africa publications for the Department of Health. After the conference, Malcolm went on a lecture tour in South

Africa and Namibia, organised by Rosemarie. They had known each other about two weeks, during which they had spent the equivalent of three days in each other’s company when they decided to get married.

They lived in Oxford, but during regular visits to Rosemarie’s children in South Africa, Malcolm kept contact with his friend at the CSIR, who eventually persuaded him to relocate to Pretoria in 1981 to work with the CSIR to introduce CAD for hospitals in South Africa. After 1994, Malcolm was appointed to the newly created post of National Director of Health Facility Planning.

Photography in Pretoria

Shortly after they settled in Pretoria, in about 1983, Malcolm came across a pamphlet advertising the Pretoria Photographic Society in a camera shop. He contacted the president at that time, Detlef Basel, and became a member. His interest in pho-tography deepened over time, aided by the odd workshop he attended and lots and lots of reading. He also became involved with the running of the society, including as president. “I can’t remember when,” he says.

At the turn of the century, the Jones’ bought a plot with a stream in Darling during a holiday visit to the Cape, where Mal-colm designed them a beautiful house with a studio for himself.

He also joined CTPS, where he not only served on council, but also played a very important role in helping to select photo-graphs for Interclub and other competitions, to share his vast knowledge of photography, and mentor younger members. He even judged — in club competitions, salons and at Interclub.

A good photo talks to you – but not necessary immediately



Competition NewsAugust and September PSSA entriesThE SENiOr entry for the PSSA club competition in August was Reflections from a Ferry by Jeanette du Toit (see cover). In Sep-tember, the senior entry in the PSSA monthly competition was Abstract by Johan Strydom (below), the winner of the Salon Print Open section. Judge Paul Bruins liked it so much that he offered to

buy the image. Johan is still one of the few members who works in film.

The August junior PSSA entry was A Quite Read by Paul Nuttall (below), the winner of the Intermediate Print Open category.

There was no junior PSSA entry in September.

August judge a macro expertMACrO ExPErT Marcus Jooste was our judge in the August competition, where the set subject was ... macro. Jooste is a popular lecturer on the topic and he also conducts macro workshops. He says he is self-taught and that he creates im-ages using “bits and bobs found in and around my garden and home” as well as imaginative lighting to bring them to life. He often talks about the garden snail Vincent, which he claims is the star of many of his creative snail macros (see below). Marcus is also a member of the Steenberg Photographic Club.

Our SEPTEMbEr judge, Paul Bruins, spoke at the CTPS Con-gress at De Hoop, as well as the PSSA Congress in Swellendam, about landscape photography. He was therefore invited as the judge of the month in which the set subject was scapes.

Bruins says that he loves looking at photos. Looking at im-ages critically helps one to improve your photography, he be-lieves, and as a judge he therefore does not aim to boost the photographer’s ego, but to give his critical opinion.

“I am known for scoring mean, but I do not believe in giv-ing high scores because you will then not realise that you still

have a long way to go to achieve perfection.“I am extremely critical of my own images,” he says. “My

personal goal is to continue to improve my techniques with every photograph I take, and I will return to the same location again and again, until I am certain that all the elements have worked in my favour, and that I have produced an image that cannot be improved upon.”

As a professional photographer specialising in landscapes, he says his aim is to share his emotions, experiences, loca-tions and techniques with other like-minded photographers.

2015 Set subject themes and judgesThe Set subject themes for the remainder of 2015 will be:

7 October: 125 year celebrations — judges Neels Beyers, Frank Reuvers and Malcolm Jones4 November: Shadows and/or reflections — judge Justin de Reuck2 December: Rustic — judge Stan Slater

A critical look at landscapes from our September judge

Paul Bruins at De Hoop, where he was a speaker at the CTPS mini-congress.



Top scoring images August and SeptemberSee all the top competition images in “Galleries” on the CTPS website www.ctps.co.za

1)August winner Salon PDI Open (27): Spare ribs for supper by Pat Scott. Shot with a Canon 7D and 400mm lens. Exposure: 1/1600 sec, f/7.1, ISO 320.2) September winner Salon PDI Set Subject — Scapes (26): Autumn Patchwork was shot by Jean Bradshaw with a Canon 5D Mark 111, with EF 70-200mm lens. Exposure: 1/15 sec, f/8, ISO 100.3) August winner Salon Set Subject — Macro (25): The Oracle was shot by Kim Stevens with a Canon 5D Mark 111, us-ing a EF100mm f/2.8L macro lens. Exposure: 1/750 sec, at f/2.8 and ISO 100.4) September winner PDI Advanced Set Subject — Scapes (25): Positano Seascape by Richard Goldschmidt was photographed with a Canon PowerShot S120 with a 5.2-26mm lens. Exposure: 1/1600 sec at f/4.0 and ISO 160.

5) September winner Advanced Print Open (26): Working on Birdwing Roof Detail by Anna Morris represent a small cutout of the photo she took of the new substation at the World Trade Centre in New York with a Canon 70D and 18-270 mm lens at 1/200 sec, f/5.6 and ISO 200.

6) August winner Advanced Print Open (27): Young South African Opera Star by Anna Morris is a portrait of up and coming Cape Town opera singer Siyabulela Ntlala, who last year came second in an inter-national singing competition in Germany. “He was wonderful to pho-tograph,” says Anna, who approached her to take some photos for his portfolio. She used a Canon 7D and EF-S18-200mm lens. Exposure: 1/40 sec, at f/5.0 and ISO 400.

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7) August Salon PDI Open (27): On Bended Knee was shot by Jeanette Brusnicky during a Kirstenbosch macro workshop by Greg Hillyard. She used a Canon 7D with EF-S18-135mm lens at /640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100.



More winning images in August: set subject macro

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1) Winner Beginner PDI Set Sub-ject: Misty Rose by Barbara Hal-lock.

2) Winner Advanced PDI Set Sub-ject: To be or not to bee by Ken Woods.

3) Winner Advanced Print Set Subject: Artist Palette — Storm at see by Steff Hughes.

4) Winner Advanced PDI Open: Midnight Dancer by Anna Morris.

5) High scorer Salon Print Open: The Sentinels by Kim Stevens

6) Winner Beginner Print Open: Follow the Path by Carin Hardisty

7) Winner Intermediate PDI Set Subject: 3D Flowers by Paul Nuttall

8) Winner Salon PDI Set Subject: Rusting fixtures by Joan Ward

9) High scorer Salon Print Open: Undulating Dunes by Jean Bradshaw.



Winning images September : set subject scapesSee all the top competition images in “Galleries” on the CTPS website www.ctps.co.za

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1) Winner Salon PDI Open: Daisies for Dinner by Joan Ward

2) Winner Salon Print Set Subject: Natural Splendour by Shaun Laishley

3) Winner Advanced Print Set subject: Dubrovnik Roofscapes by Richard Gold-schmidt

4) High Scorer Salon PDI Open: Safe Harbour by Lesley Parolis

5) High Scorer Ad-vanced PDI Open: Cormorants at Noetsie by Catherine Bruce-Wright

6) High Scorer Ad-vanced PDI Set sub-ject: San Francisco Golden Bridge by Jo-han Greeff

8) Winner PDI Ad-vanced Open: Tense

7) High Scorer Advanced PDI Set subject: Cast Fate to the Wind by Anna Engelhardt 8



CTPS 125 years:

Highs and lows of hosting salons

Since the early 1930’s CTPS has had a proud tradition of hosting bi-annual international salons that attracted top photographers from across the world. This tradition, however, had a somewhat shaky start and sadly lost mo-

mentum over the past two decades. CTPS decided in 1932 to follow the example of the Johannes-

burg Photographic Society, who had held an annual international salon since the late 1920’s, and also establish an international salon called the Cape of Good Hope International Salon of Photography, reports Eric Vertue in his centenary publication Cape Town Photograph-ic Society – 30 October 1890 – 30 October 1990.

It was a prestigious salon. The CTPS president, A van H van Oudtshoorn, and Will Till from Johannesburg, who were considered to be the two leading South African photographers of the time, were on the selection panel.

Vertue had assisted the salon secretary when he lived in Johan-nesburg and after he moved to Cape Town in 1936, he was asked to help with the parcelling of the print entries that had to be re-turned.

Complete bedlam!

“Never was anyone more surprised than I to see how another sa-lon secretary organised his salon,” writes Vertue. “True enough, every entrant was registered in a book, but there the organisa-tion stopped. Full stop! As the prints were extracted from their wrappings, these were simply flung into an empty room. Now came the awesome task of trying to marry pictures to a parcel, somewhere in a sea of wrappers. It was bedlam and took night after night of searching. Eventually, the job was done with ex-

tra prints all over the place.“Tied-up parcels had already been despatched and new parcels

had to be made up for the odd print, but there were no stiffen-ers! Fred Harris in Johannesburg received his print folded in four — he was not amused, but even less amused when the salon sec-retary did not respond to his letters. Then, a very curt appeal to the President and a demand for damages. It was all too pathetic.”

Despite this disorganised start, the Cape of Good Hope Salon survived to be held every two years. It drew interesting entries, reports Vertue. “There was Echague from Spain with his beautiful Fresson prints, Alec Keighley and his rich car-bon landscapes, F J Mortimer and his eye- catching seascapes and mul-tiple negative landscapes, all from England, Fraprie and Dr Max Thorak of the US with new techniques.

These were exciting times, getting to know the members. The East had not yet entered the salon scene.”

The start of colour

During the early days all the prints were entered in monochrome that were “rich in blacks,” writes Vertue. “We were in the period when bromide or chlorobromide papers were rich in silver with plenty of scope for those little practices that every darkroom worker has made to put his personal stamp on his exhibition prints — not only secrets, but a practice his experience has de-veloped to suit a personal touch to his work.”

But, as early as the 1930’s CTPS already had their colour work-ers – even before Kodak and Agfa introduced their commercial colour films after the war, which made quite an impact on salon entries.

“It was the East, though, that flooded salons with, at first, beau-

As the prints were extracted from their wrappings, these were sim-ply flung into an empty room. Now came the awesome task of trying to marry pictures to a parcel, some-where in a sea of wrappers.

The 2015 Cape Town Photographic Society Anniversary Salon and exhi-bition will not only end the anniversary year on a high, but will also be building on a proud — and sometimes not so proud — CTPS salon tradition

Winning images from previous salons: Willem Kruger’s Star Trail Richtersveld in 2014 and Nico Smit’s Desert Crocodile in 2002.



THE ANNiVERSARy celebrations this year will end on a high with the CTPS 125th Anniversary Salon Exhibition where all the print entries that won Acceptances, Certifi-cates of Merit and medals, will be on public display in the Cape Town Central Library. PDI’s and AV’s will be projected during the exhibition.

The print and PDI entries will also be published in a glossy coffee-table book, while the winning AV’s will be distributed by DVD.

CTPS members are especially encouraged to enter this sa-lon, because in each category a CTPS bronze medal will be awarded to the member who has the best entry. This will be in addition to the PSSA silver medal for the winning en-try in each category, as well as the CTPS silver medal for the runner-up entry in every category.

The top 18-23% images in each category will gain Accept-ance in the salon, and a Certificate of Merit will be awarded to about the top 10% of the Acceptances.The categories will be: • PDi (director Lesley Parolis): Open, Photojournalism and

Macro. Maximum four entries per photographer. These will be judged by: Johan Kloppers, Robert Johnson and Tiens Mey (Open); Bennie Viviers, Birgit Hofmeyer and Deon Kuhn (Macro); Dinkie Marais, Derick Nel and Jean du Ples-

sis (Photojournalism).

• Print (director Antenie Carstens): Open, Photojournalism and Macro. Maximum six entries per photographer. These will be judged by: Almut Hofmeyer, Lee Slabber and Niel Goslett (Open); Peter Hardcastle, Peter Brandt and Philip de Lange (Macro and Photojournalism).

• AV (director Nellian Bekker) Open and Documentary. The judges will be: Thomas Niemeyer, Friso Woudstra and Pad-dy Howes (Documentary); Izak van Niekerk, Ronnie Hazell and Friso Woudstra (Open).

At a glance• Closing date: 24 October• Enquiries to salon director, Nicol du Toit, on email nicol@

sportstrader.co.za • Cost: PDI and print R6 per entry for PSSA members and

R9 per entry for non-PSSA members. R50 per AV for PSSA members and R75 per entry for non-PSSA members.

• brochure: All information and entry forms can be found in the salon brochures on the PSSA website www.pssa.co.za. Click on the Salons menu, then Salon Calendar and Results. Select Salon calendar for year ending June 2016. Scroll to: 2015.10.24 - Cape Town Digital, Prints & AV Salon.

tiful colour, but mostly with the same theme: water reflection fishing scenes and misty mountains,” recounts Vertue. “Years later they branched out into general scenes.”

Until the late 1940’s the Cape of Good Hope Salon only accept-ed prints, but after some deliberation is was agreed to accept slides as well – which turned out to be a great success.

During the Second World War it was impossible to hold an In-ternational Salon, but the tradition of a salon every two years was kept up by holding a Members Exhibi-tion, followed by a South African Exhibition.

In 1976, the salon was hailed as the highlight of the CTPS year.

This tradition of a Cape of Good Hope Salon every two years was un-fortunately broken in the Centenary Year, 1990.

It was, however, revived in 1992, when Roy Johannesson wrote as follows to publicise the salon: “The name Cape of Good Hope international Salon of Photography is world renowned and en-joys the support of photographers from no less than thirty coun-tries. The Cape of Good Hope International Salon of Photography 1992 exhibit is an opportunity for the public to see photography of the very highest order, both in picture content (i.e. subject matter) and image quality; both of which contribute to success-ful Salon acceptances.

“An opportunity like this occurs once every two years, so take time out to visit the Nico Malan Exhibition area (ArtScape today) to view the photographic prints and the home of he Cape Town Photographic Society, 28 Jarvis Street, Cape Town to see the col-our slides. The opening of both the print and slide exhibitions is

on the 16 November.”Sadly, the 1998 international salon was again cancelled “be-

cause there is not enough interest” the council minutes of June 2007 recorded.

In 2002 Neels Beyers again revived the Cape Town Salon, al-though it would be a national, not international, salon for prints and slides. He published a catalogue of the winning images and

acceptances and club members Gail and Frank Reuvers were among the medal winners.

Twelve years would lapse between this salon and the next Cape of Good Hope National Digital Salon in 2014. It is obvious that CTPS salon directors have learnt much since that first sa-lon in 1932, as the organisers received many compliments from the seasoned

salon entrants — for example, medal winner Heinrich Albrecht wrote: Thank you for a well-coordinated Salon, I will surely par-ticipate again. Peet Mostert from Montanapark wrote to say: You can be proud how you handled your salon.

This salon was for PDI’s only and a special medal was awarded to the CTPS member with the most successful entries, to encour-age other CTPS members to enter.

The 2015 Cape Town Photographic Society Anniversary Salon will build on this tradition by again awarding a CTPS medal for the club member who does the best, but this time in each cat-egory. The experience Nicol du Toit and Lesley Parolis gained by organising the successful 2014 salon, will also be utilised.

In addition, acceptances and winners will be exhibited to the public at the Central Library in December and published in a book. CTPS members are therefore encouraged to get their im-ages ready to enter the different categories. (See above)

CTPS salon & exhibition to end 125th year with a bang



CTPS 125 years: Finding a homeCTPS members owe a huge debt of gratitude to the council members in the 1960’s who raised funds to buy 28 Jarvis Street ... but being landlords didn’t put an end to the society’s nomadic search for our own premises

T he fortunes of CTPS have been closely linked to our former building, 28 Jarvis Street. We owe much gratitude to the foresight of council members in the 1960’s who worked so hard to raise funds — especially former treasurer Gilbert

Whiteing, whose R25 started the building fund in 1964. But, it was the decision by the council in 1995 to rent out the building that began turning the tide so that nowadays CTPS can fund so many member activities, despite our low membership fees.

Before that, CTPS had to limit expenses to the income covered by the annual membership fees – like any other club. Had that been the case today, we would not even have been able to afford the rent and expenses of three meetings per month in our current premises.

Finding and maintaining suitable premises would become a re-curring issue throughout the society’s history. Eric Vertue, whose council in the 1960’s took the decision to buy a building, recounts CTPS’ nomadic existence before that decision was made in the centenary publication Cape Town Photographic Society – 30 Oc-tober 1890 – 30 October 1990.

The early daysThe inaugural CTPS meeting was held in the St George’s Grammar School Room, next to the Cathedral in Adderley street, on Octo-ber 30, 1890. The school – which subsequently moved to Mow-bray – was not available for subsequent meetings ... and from the first meeting members were asked to make suggestions for suit-able meeting rooms.

At the meeting in April 1891, it was decided to rent Mr Dix’s cafe once a month from 7.30-10.15pm for 10/- per month. He was also willing to make it available to members daily for the reading of the photographic periodicals — on condition that a case was provided to store them, reports Vertue.

“Without any previous mention we find, in the minutes dated 2 March 1893, that the meetings are held in the YMCA Dining Room and not at Dix's cafe,” wrote Vertue. “Just what led up to the change is not noted. It did necessitate a change of meetings from a Thursday to a Wednesday.”

In April 1895 the Mountain Club proposed that they share suita-ble premises with CTPS. One of the prominent CTPS members, dr

Rudolf Marloth, founded the mountain club in 1891 and chaired it until 1906, and he formed a close link between the two clubs. The proposal to find joint premises was, however, postponed in-definitely, but would crop up later in the history.

During 1896 the YMCA changed the band practise evening to a Wednesday, which made it impossible to hold a CTPS meeting above the noise emanating from the practice room. “The practise night was changed but there must have been other unhappiness as we are to learn shortly of a move of premises,” reports Vertue.

The minute books of the period 1897-1906 unfortunately went missing, but during this period the name of the Cape Town Pho-tographic Club was changed to the Cape Town Photographic So-ciety, and meetings were moved to the Old City Hall premises on Greenmarket Square after the new City Hall was opened in 1905.

Meeting in the Old Town HouseThe mayor of Cape Town from 1904-1907, Hyman Liberman, was a CTPS member and he arranged a meeting room and a dark room for the society in the old Town House, reports Vertue. “There is no mention that any rental was to be paid. There was a charge of £1/9d for water, but soon afterwards the dark-room had to be closed as the sanitary inspector wanted a new water outlet installed, but finances did not permit the expense.”

A major problem during the early years had been to find a meet-ing room that could accommodate the growing number of mem-bers. “We know that at least one lecture by Dr Marloth had to re-peated as a great number of members and their friends could not gain admittance,” reports Vertue. This problem was not solved by moving meetings to the Old Town House, as had been hoped, and two years after the move, CTPS was talking about returning to the YMCA.

“All this was very upsetting, particularly as equipment was gath-ering and all this had to be moved too. Eventually, it was decided to stay in the space provided in the Old Town House, with an ar-rangement with the YMCA that when a popular lecturer was ar-ranged they could move to the Oak Lounge at the YMCA.”

This arrangement unfortunately came to and end when the Old Town House was required to house the Michaelis Collection of Fine Paintings donated by Sir and Lady Michaelis and the Cham-



ber of Commerce. CTPS were requested to move out. “This re-quest was tempered with a promise (the letter is in our records) that when the National Art Gallery was established, suitable ac-commodation would be made available,” Vertue recorded. “This promise was kept, but the members decided not to avail them-selves of the offer. The Art Gallery was built in the Gardens and not centrally placed as originally intended. The buildings were just too far from transport.”

Share with Mountain ClubSome time during the 1930’s CTPS arranged to share a meeting room with the Mountain Club on the top floor of the Yorkshire House Building in Strand Street. “Here the Society stayed for many years, in spite of the occasional upset with the caretaker, who strongly objected if a meeting was not completed by 10 pm.”

The venue was not ideal — there were no screens so the prints were laid flat on trestle tables and the older members com-plained of the stairs as the lift was often out of action. But, it was close to transport and mem-bers could get together here.

In 1941 CTPS heard that the Yorkshire was go-ing to be demolished and rebuilt and the search for a new meeting room started all over again.

The Mountain Club had been searching for suitable premises to buy for some years and had built up a sub-stantial fund for the purpose. They asked CTPS to join them in the project and a joint committee was set up to investigate the possibility of buying premises jointly.

A plot of land in Hatfield Street, owned by the City Council, was bought by the Mountain Club, but “while negotiations regarding the financing were taking place it was found that should the Pho-tographic Society join in the scheme, the building would attract annual rates,” reports Vertue.

“According to the relative Rates Ordinance the Mountain Club would not pay rates as it was classed as a sporting body. The Pho-tographic Society was classed as a Cultural body, and would pay rates. There was no alternative but to abandon what could have been a most pleasant arrangement.”

One of the medical members suggested the hall in Medical House in Wale Street, which turned out to be suitable and afford-

able. “The hall was small and intimate,” writes Vertue. “We got permission to stretch a wire above door level along one wall on which we could hang a screen of hessian for displaying the com-petition prints. Our old lantern was taken out of storage and put back into service, and what was appreciated even more was that we were given the use of the kitchen.”

The society was very happy in Medical House and sad when in 1950 they were advised that the building was to be changed and another floor added. The search for new premises was on again.

Horace Lawley, who served on the St Georges Cathedral com-mittee, suggested the Cathedral Hall. He could arrange for the society to use the hall on Wednesdays, the caretaker’s day off, at a very reasonable rental, provided that they collect the key dur-ing the day, take responsibility for the premises, and take the key back the next day.

“This worked out very well as now the photographic section could still have their two meetings and the cine section could have

two meetings. When a fifth Wednesday occurred, it became a combined meet-ing,” writes Vertue.

“This was a happy arrangement, except for the confounded key. It became a prob-lem until Herbert French, being some-what more courageous than the rest of

us, had a duplicate made. We also had the use of the Green Room and this became the library and store room. What a chore to drag all the equipment up and down a narrow stair every evening!”

A building that could be adapted to the society’s needs, was still high on the wish list – but due to the low subscription funds, chances looked slim that CTPS would ever have sufficient funds to buy premises.

Our own building, finallyIn 1964 the society established a building fund with a R25 dona-tion by Gilbert Whiteing — five years later it was growing steadily from generous donations by members, allocations from subscrip-tions, and various forms of fundraising. For example, when the CTPS Survey Group published their book on old farmsteads, From the Days that are Gone, all the profits went to the Building Fund.

The funds were invested by Brian Greener, the To p18

‘CTPS cannot afford to keep the hall for much longer. We must look for another venue’

Jarvis Street in 1972. Opposite page: The building today. Jarvis Street from the back, in 1969.



society's able treasurer, to earn good interest. According to the 1969 Annual Report the building fund had grown to R8 298. By 1970 the Building Fund had grown to R11 544 and the Annual Report of 1971 recorded that there were R14 354 in the fund. “Special mention in this connection must be made of Mary Rawk-ins for her continued efforts in organising rummage sales,”writes Vertue.

Many possible buildings and sites were investigated and found wanting — for various reasons. But, at last, the building commit-tee became enthusiastic about a disused old Baptist Church Hall close to the centre of town. In August 1970, the 322 CTPS mem-bers took transfer of 28 Jarvis Street to become the proud owners of a somewhat dilapidated building.

The building committee, however had seen the value of having a hall for meetings — which were attended by an average of 60-90 members at the time — a museum in which to keep the very considerable collection of old photographic equipment collected over the years, an archive to house the old records, a workshop where members could gather to work on projects connected with their hobby and a library with a worthy collection of books on pho-tographic matters, reports Vertue.

Moving in to Jarvis StreetSeveral members worked together to maintain and repair the building so that a tenant could be installed until it was ready for occupation by CTPS. Renovations had to be made to rectify structural and other prob-lems before the society could move in. Architect Hillel Turok was a member of CTPS and could give valuable advice. A sagging corner had to be underpinned, a huge baptismal fount moved, wooden floors patched, the projection room and committee room walls raised, etc.

The work proceeded slowly until the Cathedral authorities wanted to build an Ecumenical Centre on the site of the Cathedral Hall — CTPS was asked to move, although the Ecumenical Centre did not eventuate.

During the course of 1976 CTPS finally moved into their prem-ises at 28 Jarvis Street. The building committee was the first to utilise the new building when they held their first meeting in the committee room on 15 October, 1975, while the renovations were still being done. The first council meeting was held there on 2 December, 1975.

The society moved in stages: members helped to move the li-brary books from the Cathedral Hall and work parties assisted with setting everything to rights at Jarvis Street Hall, which be-came known as the Hall. Pieter Baartmann arranged a truck to move all the valuable old cameras, apparatus, the library and many other goods — the many trips he had to make indicated how much CTPS had accumulated.

The Hall was opened on 22 April 1976 by the Deputy Minister of Information and of the Interior, Louis le Grange. The Good Hope International Salon exhibition was simultaneously opened and Vertue reports that “A delightful opening party was followed by a presentation of the Salon slides.”

But, unfortunately, Jarvis Street did not answer all CTPS’ ac-commodation prayers for long. Being landlords of an old build-ing proved to be more costly than anticipated. During the early 1990’s CTPS had on average around R20 000 in the bank, from which funds constantly had to be withdrawn for building main-

tenance. The minutes of just about every council meeting during the 1990’s record discussions about the high cost of repairs and maintenance — especially the roof and floors — and concerns about the structural soundness of the building.

In June 1995 the treasurer, Brian Greener warned “CTPS cannot afford to keep the hall for much longer. We must look for another venue.”

Sell the buildingDuring the 1990’s the need to sell the building was discussed at several council meetings, until in September 1994 it was decid-ed to let the hall to photographer Neil Hermann at R1 375 per month, and to use the rent money for much-needed repainting and replastering of the Long Gallery.

CTPS would continue to use the hall for meetings and various rooms for storage of books, cameras and other equipment.

This became the turning point in the fortunes of the society, but also created new problems: the minutes of nearly every council

meeting records expenses relating to the upkeep of the building and complaints that the tenant was en-croaching on CTPS space. Over the next few years several offers to buy the building were considered, but turned down.

Despite the (relatively low) rental income, CTPS had a bank balance in October 1997 of only R9 000 after R18 000 had to be spent on renovations. But, once the rent was increased to a more market-related amount at the turn of the

century, the building fund steadily started growing.By 2004, when the tenant gave notice, the area around the

building had improved and the building was now valued at R1 609 583. A new tenant, Veo Galleries, signed a 3-year lease in December 2004 at a much improved (for CTPS) rent, which would increase by 10% per year.

On the move againWhen the tenant got permission to sub-let the basement in No-vember 2006, an alternative meeting place had to be found. Park-ing in the area with its narrow streets had become a problem for members, who also felt unsafe if they had to park elsewhere and walk some distance to attend meetings at night. The move to Huis der Nederlanden in Pinelands as a meeting place was there-fore welcomed by most members.

In June 2009 CTPS was, however, given notice that Huis der Nederlanden can only provide accommodation till the end of the year. Member Rashid Latiff kindly offered his Capetonian hotel as an alternative, but the storage for the projector and other equip-ment proved to be a problem.

As the Cape Quarter area around Jarvis Street upgraded and be-came a prime office and shopping area, the benchmark for mar-ket-related rent grew correspondingly. But, this didn’t cushion CTPS from the usual landlord problems experienced by owners of old buildings: tenants failing to pay, and expensive maintenance work on the roof, floor, walls becoming a constant time-consum-ing and money-draining concern.

The tenants, who experienced cash-flow problems after the sub-tenant moved out, didn’t renew their lease and at the end of March 2010 Adrian Steirn, who made the 21 Icons series on famous South Africans, became the new tenant. To p21

The quest for a permanent meeting place cont. from p17

As the Cape Quarter area around Jarvis Street upgraded and became a prime office and shopping area, the benchmark for market-related rent grew correspondingly. But, this didn’t cushion CTPS from the usual landlord problems: tenants failing to pay, and expen-sive maintenance work on the roof, floor, walls becoming a constant time-consuming and money-draining concern



Long-serving stalwarts (2)Over the years, many CTPS members had been contributing to the so-ciety for decades — for example, Honorary Life Members Henk Mulder, Mels Homburg and Ian Levy have been members for a total of 113 years. JOY WELLBELOVED asked them to share their memories. We’ll feature more of these stalwarts in the next issues of Cape Camera

To p20

MElS hOMburg has been a val-ued member of CTPS for 32 years, and especially played a significant role on council during the 1990’s and 2000’s, serving as president, among other roles. These are his recollections:

“I was given my first camera, a Zeiss Box camera that took 120 film, when I was about 12 years old. It lasted me a long time.

“I had trained as an electrical en-gineer (heavy current), and my hobbies were photography and Hi-Fi — I built my own amplifier and preamplifier, for example. A friend of mine was a member of CTPS, and I went to a meeting with him some time in 1983. When he introduced me to Eric Vertue, he said that I was just the kind of person that CTPS needed with my interest in photog-raphy and my electrical engineering knowledge, as I could help in the projection room with the sound system and the projector. So I joined.

“During my time at CTPS I served on many committees, and held many portfolios — in fact I did a little bit of everything. After some political in-fighting among members of council, the president resigned (in 1995), and I took over for two years. With me were Tom Niemeyer (vice-president), Jenny Powis (secretary), and Brian Greener (treasurer).

“When Brian Greener died I took over as treasurer, a posi-tion that I kept for 10 years. The finances were in a bad way, and with great reluctance a decision was taken to let the hall in Jarvis street during the day, with CTPS still having access for meetings. This continued for a while, then the premises became full-time rental.”

Fond memories

“I feel that we are in the age of photographic specialists — people who are good at one or two photographic genres — like portraits, or wildlife, or landscapes. Very few photogra-phers can work well outside their comfort zone.

When Agfa brought out a cheap disposable camera (le Box) that could take about 27 pictures, and whose price included the developing and printing of the built-in film, I saw a perfect

opportunity to expand our members’ ex-pertise. So, I drew up a list of ten set sub-jects in a variety of genres.

“On paying the entry fee, which cov-ered the cost of the camera, developing and printing, each entrant was handed the list and the camera and told to go take photos of the listed subjects with the disposable camera, and then to re-turn the camera to me for processing by Agfa. Members were marked on their entire panel.

“A certain member refused to hand in the camera, insisting on processing the film. That member’s panel was the best by far. Unfortunately, the image qual-ity was way beyond what the disposable camera could do, so the member obvi-ously cheated. Sadly, some people just have to win — regardless. This proved to be a popular set subject, and was repeat-ed a few times. I am proud to say that I even won once!”

What he misses

“I feel that CTPS has grown too big, and has lost the feeling of camaraderie that existed when it was smaller, and meet-ings were held in more comfortable surroundings.

“The large membership has resulted in a large number of en-tries on competition nights, which puts strain on the judging process, and does not allow for interaction. As a result, what could be a valuable opportunity to learn from the judge’s comments, has been lost.

“In my opinion, CTPS no longer carries the prestige that it used to have, and has become just another camera club.

“In the good old days, being seriously interested in photog-raphy represented a considerable investment. Apart from your camera (unless you took slides where commercial pro-cessing was acceptable), you needed a whole darkroom of equipment. Then you had to learn how to develop and print your own images, as commercially processed prints were not accepted by CTPS. “I find it a shame that anyone who owns a cell phone these days can call themselves a photographer, and join CTPS. As a result, we now have many members in the top sections of the society who have no idea how to develop and print images.”

Mels Homburg photographed by Joy Wellbeloved.

Mels Homburg, former president and committee stalwart



iAN LEVy, the longest-serving CTPS member, has seen the society grow and change over nearly half a century. Since he joined in 1967, slides have dis-appeared, AV has taken over from cine, digital has surpassed prints and the soci-ety celebrated a centenary as well as 125 year anniversaries. He remembers as fol-lows:

“By trade I am an interior decorator and manufacturer of soft furnishings. To this end, it was fortuitous in that photogra-phy and colour went hand in hand with my profession, as I was able to compose in my mind the finished project and col-ours that complimented the assignment.

“My late dad was a very keen photogra-pher and so it was through him that I was taught the basic rudiments of photogra-phy. At the age of six, I am told, I was quite adept at developing film in a dish under his desk, moving the film, left to right in a U configuration.

“A Jack Zive, a member of CTPS, moved in as a neighbour and became my mentor. By the age of twelve I was quite adept at re-touching black and white photographs to the extent that I could remove freckles completely from a photograph.

“By the time I was 15/16 years old, I was the school’s pho-tographer for the various divisions in their rugby, cricket and hockey teams. This was a very lucrative period financially and it enabled me to purchase a Rolleiflex camera.

Cine accolades

“In my early twenties cine photography became my main in-terest and I joined the Cape Cine Club, which had a reciprocal membership with CTPS. In 1965, I became president.

“I once more gravitated to still photography, in particu-lar printing my own colour photographs, and also became a member of CTPS.

“By 1970 I was running a parallel interest, that of produc-ing 16mm documentary films and prints. In the same year I was approached by the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) to produce a 20 minute documentary that would inform the public and oil companies of their aim and thus promote their cause. The fledgling institute at that stage only had one boat on which to rely for sea rescue. I completed this project — their first promotional film — which I entered in the PSSA ten best film competition, where it won first place. Needless to say, the film has led to the saving of hundreds of lives and NSRI now has many boats along our coastline.

“I was subsequently approached by MedicAlert to emulate the documentary made for NSRI. That the number of lives saved runs into thousands, is an understatement.

“Both films were made free of charge as a donation to both organisations. The MedicAlert film also won the PSSA ten best competition and the film was also sent to the States, where it was a resounding success.

“As I was a member of CTPS, and a competitive member in the cine section, the films indirectly brought accolades to the society.

“An extra accolade of the year 1971 was the winning of the PSSA medal for the best produced magazine for that year.

“I served on the CTPS print committee and was vice-president

of the society (in the late 1970’s) and in 1992 was presented with a PSSA service medal for organising the Cape Town Con-gress (of 1990) — it was the first time that a PSSA congress showed a profit.

“Part of the success of the congress was due to procuring the services of Ashley Lazarus, the producer of the famous Pe-ter Stuyvesant action adverts, and the in-terception and diversion to Cape Town of the Kodak colour print exhibition, which was on its way to Fotokino (the Long Street camera store). A big thank-you is due to our wonderful working relation-ship with a Mrs Poldon of Kodak, which enabled this.”

His best memories of CTPS has been the many accolades he had won. For example, winning the Inter-Club print competition in 1999 and 2003 and being runner-up in 2002 and 2004.

After receiving an award for meritorious services to PSSA in 1992, CTPS awarded him a Certificate of Appreciation for his service to the society in 2003.

He was also a regular trophy winner at the CTPS year-end functions: in 1985/6/7, 2002 and 2005 he won the Vertue Tro-phy for Best Colour Print, in 1986 and 1991 he won the Kodak Trophy and in 2003 the Lawley Trophy for Best Monochrome Print. In 2002 all five his entries got acceptances in the Cape of Good Hope International Salon.

“In 2013 the high point of all the above was being made an Honorary Life member of CTPS,” he remembers.

JR Ewing disrupts meetings

His worst memory of his time as a CTPS member is of the pe-riod when he was vice-president. “A gentleman by the name of J.R. Ewing of Dallas appeared on the Wednesday night scene (in 1978) and at times we had an attendance of only five to eight members — a very difficult time. I would place the exhibition free standing boards in a semi-circle closer to the front of the hall, so that the hall did not seem so big!”

“I think that CTPS has done admirably in progressing with the times, but the tools used today do not give an insight into the comprehensive manual workings of photography as in years gone by when certain techniques were achieved by an intimate insight of the tools needed to produce the perfect print.”

“A light meter, if used, and a reading of the average shadows between light and dark, relied on the ability of the photogra-pher’s expertise to produce the correct print. Today it is just point … and a little diode does the rest — commendable, but is it satisfying?

“To me, the satisfaction of a winter’s night, working in the darkroom, enlarging your print and watching it materialise as a manifestation of your creation, cannot be surpassed by handing your work over to some machine, which automatically corrects any errors in exposure and colour. But yes, us oldies of a bygone era we must do or die!

“Fifty years, a half century, has seen a tremendous meta-morphosis in photography and one cannot ever anticipate the changes to come.

“ To all at the society, I salute you in your understanding of the new digital world — may you go from strength to strength.”

Ian Levy: nearly 50 years of CTPS service



Henk Mulder by Joy Wellbeloved.

Henk Mulder, a ‘Jack of all trades’HENk MuLDER has not only been a CTPS member for 33 years, but a good deal of this time was spent serving the society in various capacities. This is how he remembers the early days:“I was very young when I got involved with photography.

Somewhere between 6 and 16, as they say, my father, a keen amateur photographer, gave me a Kodak 620 folding camera that used 120

film. “Later, when I was in Std 1 (Grade 3)

I got what was called a miniature cam-era — a 35mm Nikkorex 35mm that was first introduced around 1960,” he recol-lects. “Later still, but while I was still at school, I got a 120 twin lens reflex

camera — like the Rollei I still have.”At school, he was the sports

events photographer. After school, he qualified as an accountant.

“In 1974, when I was Financial Di-rector for Anglo (American) I was transferred to the Cape to handle the merger of the Boschendal Es-tate to Rhodes Fruit Farms. With my interest in photography it was not long before I joined a photo-graphic club in Bellville, where I lived at the time.”

Joining CTPS

He heard about CTPS from his dentist, Johan Kloppers (the cur-rent PSSA regional director). “Around this time we discovered

that my son Lawrence — although brilliant — required special schooling as a result of his dyslexia. So we moved to New-lands in Cape Town and in 1982 I joined CTPS.”

He was soon involved in council and contributed in many ways to the running of the society over the next decades. “I call myself a Jack of all trades as I have been involved in many projects at CTPS,” says Henk. He had been print coordinator, served on council as a member responsible for various port-folios, including president (1998-1999), vice-president, treas-urer, in charge of property, etc.. He has also been judging in competitions.

He is also a top p h o t o g r a p h e r, who, for example, won the Interclub prize for the best PDI image in 2007.

“The thing about CTPS that I liked best was the sense of camaraderie. If you had a prob-lem someone was there to help you. There were no ar-rogant members who were not pre-pared to help new members.”

He has special fond memories of Colin Richards, a professional pho-tographer.

“He was very knowledgeable, and always willing to help. One evening while I was judging, Colin submitted a large black and white print of a lion kill which had just happened, with a herd of zebra looking on.

“I gave it a score of 30, and suggested that Colin change the name to Street Mugging as it was just like in the city — when someone has been mugged, everyone stands around looking on, but no-one saw anything. When Colin died, he left the print to me in his will.”

Changes since he joined

“These days I find that the St Stephen’s Church hall lacks the cosy atmosphere that existed in Huis Den Nederlanden, and the seats are very hard on the bum. The meetings are too long and hurried. There is no time allowed for meaningful dialogue between the judge and the author of the image.”

He now attends the Durbanville Photography Club, which is 5km closer to where he lives in Duynefontein (near Koeberg). Other members also live in the area and they share lifts.

His advice for other members? “Pardon the youth for their ignorance — it is part of their joy and charm.”

When the Huis der Nederlanden (now known as the SA Centre for the Netherlands and Flanders) again became available in June 2010, it was decided to move back, even though the rent, catering and security would cost R1 000 per meeting. The high rental and other problems, however, again prompted a search for alterna-tive meeting space.

In July 2011, CTPS moved around the corner to St Stephen’s Church Hall in Pinelands, where the rent would be much less, and convenient storage, parking and tea facilities would be available. And that is where we still meet today.

The (by now substantial) rent continued to grow our bank bal-ance, especially after the current treasurer discovered that the tenant owed R111 000 for outstanding rates increases. But the upkeep of the building was very time- and money-consuming.

For example, the council minutes of April 2010 record that R67 000 had to be spent on repairs, in October 2012 the tenant re-quested upgrades to the value of R173 214 of which CTPS agreed to cover half the amount — and so it went on at regular intervals.

At the AGM last year members approved a proposal that the Jarvis Street property may be sold. At a Special General Meet-ing held on 5 November 2014, members approved the sale of 28 Jarvis Street to the current tenant, 21 Icons, for R4-m.

The search for a building of our own is again on: a place where all books, old photographs, valuable cameras, and archives cur-rently in storage could be displayed, where members could have studio space, where a library could be set up, where exhibitions could be held, where meetings could be held ... and thanks to the foresight of older members, we have the funds to buy.

CTPS dreams of a building of our own cont. from p18



CTPS 125 years:

A showcase of AV’sDuring the September 125 year celebrations all members of the AV group showcased their work — from novice to experienced — and further entertained other CTPS members with wine and snacks. The evening kicked off on a high note when Antenie Carstens showed how slides were used to create an AV in the olden days. He used no less than six slide projectors to create shows set to music that compare well with some modern AV’s. He explained this method in the Cape Camera of June/July 2015

Antenie Carstens setting up the six slide projectors he used to show four AV’s made in the days before computers.

Above: Marius Stockenstrom and CTPS secretary Jacoba van Zyl talk AV’s with Antenie Carstens.

Right: Johan Strydom and Andrew Denny enjoy-ing the refreshments served during the break.

John Spence filmed the evening and Jeanette du Toit’s AV on the elephant clans in the Etosha was showed.

The nature AV’s made by Margaret Col-lins and Len van Wyk (entertained the audience.

The evening was successfully organised by Nellian Bekker, here with CTPS property manager Richard Goldschmidt.

Right: Vic Els and CTPS vice-presi-dent Nicol du Toit enjoying the break.

Left: Two guys who helped contrib-ute to the success of the evening are Ken Woods (left), who assisted with the projection and music for An-tenie’s show and Johan Beyers, who provided the wide screen needed for Antenie’s AV’s.

Right: Joy Wellbeloved and Steffne Hughes in thoughtful conversation.

Joan Ward (right) greeting her friend, Pat Scott, who provided the refreshments for the evening.



PSSA dedicates congress to us

1 2 3

4 5

CTPS members enjoy-ing the gala evening at the congress. 1) Li-onel and Elmara Wil-lis. 2) Margaret Col-lins and Len van Wyk. 3) Antenie Carstens. 4) Jeanette du Toit and Nellian Bekker. 5) Carin Hardisty, Nicol du Toit and Neels Beyers.

The 2016 PSSA Congress in Langebaan will be dedi-cated to the CTPS 125 Year Anniversary. Judging by the programme and the fun members had at the PSSA Con-gress in Swellendam, this will be a not-to-be-missed event

T he next PSSA Congress, which will be held at Club Mykonos, Langebaan, from 26 August to 1 Septem-ber 2016, will be a celebration of Local is Lekker, Western Cape Regional Director Johan Kloppers told

delegates to the 2015 PSSA Congress in Swellendam. And, it will be dedicated to CTPS’ 125th year celebrations.

Registration is now open on the PSSA website, where the full programme of top speakers like Lee Slabber, Albert Froneman, Chris Fallows, Nicole Palmer, Willem Oets, Paul Bruins, Gus Waschefort, Manus van Dyk, Theo Lategan etc. will in time be made available.

Although Tuesday 30 August is officially an open day, it could prove to be a highlight as a visit to Evita se Perron is planned, where Hein Waschefort and Laetitia Kenny will present work-shops. This outing is not covered by the registration fee as only 120 people can be accommodated at an additional fee of R300.

Altering reality

Members attending the PSSA congress in Skukuza in 2014 and the JAP course on Altered Reality will be familiar with the crea-tivity of Waschefort and Kenny, who have the ability to trans-form photographs to mimic other art forms.

Apart from presenting an opportunity to photograph canola fields, this year’s congress offered a varied programme — with iconic photographers like Obie Oberholzer and Benny Gool providing some fresh insights that were among the highlights

of the congress. Oberholzer’s off-beat humour — for example, presenting a

sleeping camel as an example of his wildlife photography — lightened the somewhat serious mood considerably.

In contrast, Benny Gool’s description of how he had to hide from PAGAD, the Staggie gang and the NPA, who all wanted the images he shot of the murder of Rashid Staggie, was a sobering reminder of the responsibility of the photojournalist not to take sides. On the other hand, as custodian of the me-dia coverage of Madiba and Archbishop Tutu, he ensures that personal privacy remains intact.

Interesting presentations

The presentation Koot Marais did for his Masters Application and Paul Bruins’ The 10 most valuable lessons I learnt to im-prove my photography were among the other presentations that delegates enjoyed. Antenie Carstens also gave a very in-teresting presentation about the history of the PSSA — and the important role some CTPS members played in the formation.

The PSSA Forum and Cape Photographers’ AGM were unfor-tunately not well attended ... but then, not much seems to have happened about the resolutions that were adopted in 2014.

The Cape Photographers is organising a National AV Congress from 25-29 April 2016 in Prince Albert. This event will also in-clude the 2nd PECC International AV Festival. Registrations are open now on the PSSA website (www.pssa.co.za).



16 SeptemberCTPS AGM and Council election. Please think about nominations to fill council positions. Proxy voting forms and notices have been sent out and nominations may be made from the floor.

16 September After the AGM (from 8pm onwards) Sandra Maytham-Bailey will talk about the power of photographs. See p4

7 OctoberCompetition Set Subject: images taken during our 125 year anniversary outings and events. Judged by Neels Beyers, Frank Reuvers and Malcolm Jones.

24 OctoberEntries close for the Cape Town Photographic Society 125th Anniversary Salon for print (Antenie Carstens), PDI (Lesley Paro-lis), AV (Nellian Bekker). Salon director: Nicol du Toit. See p15.

30 October

The society’s birthday will be celebrated with a gala din-ner at Granger Bay with prominent speakers like the presidents of the Royal Photographic Society and the Photographic Society of South Africa. See p4

4 November Competition Set subject Shadows and/or Reflec-tions. To be judged by Justin de Reuck.

6 November Interclub competition prize giving and results in the San-lam Centre, Bellville. Hosted by Swartland Club.

December

Exhibition of the acceptances and prize winning prints in the CTPS 125th Anniversary Salon in the Cape Town Library, with PDIs and AVs projected during the exhi-bition. A salon catalogue will also be published.

For updates on outings, consult the CTPS website at www.ctps.co.za or the Facebook page.

125 Year celebration diarySave these dates for 2015

Documents

Cape Camera August September 2015