In October last year the Society celebrated its 60th anniversary since re-forming after the Second World War. The commemorative exhibition of members’ work held at the Durham Art Gallery was a powerful example of the skill and creativity which we seek to foster as an organisation. 

It was an occasion for me personally to consider how far things have changed since those early days. I would have been five years old when the society was re-established. Popular television did not exist; one of the few sources of up-to date imagery was ‘Picture Post’. The work of people such as Bert Hardy has stayed with me, though perhaps I did not appreciate what a great photographer he was until much later. To make images with the equipment available at the time was both a technical and an aesthetic challenge. Not for them the ‘auto – everything’ cameras of today. 

Sixty years on, and times have changed. We live in a visual culture, saturated by images. Technology can make the production of a picture very simple. It is the making of pictures which are special and out of the ordinary which marks the best in photography, requiring as it does, both vision and skill. I feel that our members demonstrated these two qualities in abundance, thus keeping alive the traditions of our forbears.  

For the event we chose not to be retrospective but to showcase recent work.  I hope we demonstrated that we are keeping alive those past traditions excellence, but also evolving in step with improvements in technology.  

I see this year to come as the first of the next sixty and look forward to enjoying the many and varied ways in which our members demonstrate their craft and artistry with the camera. 

Alan Stott