The year 2022 saw the club celebrate its 25th anniversary and much of the clubs activity was geared to this and to coming out of stringent Covid regulations. Nevertheless 2022 was not without its challenges for club activity with record levels of load shedding playing havoc with meeting scheduling. However, this eased in the latter part of the year when the church set up a generator system rather than the UPS it had previously. However many members feel that leaving a meeting in the dark has its problems so not yet a full answer to this concern.
The year had its sad point too in losing one of our most dedicated members, immediate past President Elizma Fourie and it has been decided to dedicate an annual Elizma Fourie Seminar likely if not perhaps this year, at future FynArts events of the club. We aim to get Elizma’s family endorsement of this project of course first.
Members participating in both National and International salons did extremely well, putting the Hermanus Club’s name out there and with medal winning photographs appearing on the PSSA website where Hermanus still dominates the entries!
Following on from 2021, 2022 saw us participate in the Cwm Rhondda Challenge where we finished a credible 4th out of 26 clubs from around the world. This was followed by a similar standing in the PSSA club competition where we again came 4th out of over 50 clubs participating. Then again we had a good performance at the Western Cape Forum club competition.
Monthly activities
Whilst we continued with our monthly meetings and evaluations we also had a some very
successful mid-month educational events thanks especially to Crighton but with the support
of the committee and other members.
We also have our regular Hermanus Art in the Park and First Fridays Art Walk each month
and this has raised the profile of the club significantly which in time will lead to an increase in
membership.
Last year we had a number of events at which members of the club were there to document
including the World Tour Bodysurfing event and a National BMX event, both held in
Hermanus. It is the intend this year that such activities will be more prominent with a planned
event upcoming again at the Vermont Pan to which the public will be invited and a Street
Photography/Camera Phone seminar with a follow up street walk.
Visibility
Perhaps the most successful of all club events last year and far many preceding years, was
the exceptional Fyn Arts Exhibition that saw some 500 visitors attend over the four days, Not
only was the photography worthy of comment but the whole exhibition was so well run other
clubs have since being asking our advice as to how things should be done. Not content with
last years success we aim to make 2023 even better.
Sustainability
There is always a concern in keeping the club running with continued stress on maintaining
membership and making sure too much workload is not placed on the fewer active club
members. This was especially the case in 2021/2 where the Committees workload increased
significantly both due to more club activities and a reduced number of members on the
committee.
Hopefully we will be able to increase the Committee membership this year to reduce
individual workloads. The current committee and hopefully the forthcoming Committee will
keep the club alive and buzzing. But to do this we do need commitment from all members to
join in these activities as frankly this was a concern in 2022. We have also agreed to keep subscriptions at at same at the 2022 level.
General
Lastly my thanks to every member who attended our meetings, took part in our activities,
lent a hand, came up with suggestions, and in any other way contributed to our good year.
David Wilson, LRPS
President Hermanus Photographic Society 1st February 2023