Showing posts with label SCACC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SCACC. Show all posts

Monday, November 28, 2016

Harold Augustus Taylor



I was looking for the photographer when I began delving into the life of Harold A. Taylor. This is the photographer who founded the Camera Enthusiasts of San Diego in 1927. This is the first photography club to meet in Balboa Park. He was an active participant with Dr. Scott Watson and his Photographic Arts Society. Harold Taylor also assisted in the formation of the current Southern California Association of Camera Clubs in 1949-1950. This organization continues to meet in Balboa Park.

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Camera Clubs of Balboa Park

Balboa Park, the Gem of San Diego has hosted a multitude of camera clubs since the Camera Enthusiasts first met in August of 1927. The majority of clubs came into existence after 1947 with the greater number of those clubs founded under the auspices of the Southern California Association Camera Clubs.

Evidence for these clubs have come from rosters and scraps of papers. There is a very good chance that other groups may be found.

Camera Clubs Associated with Balboa Park


Camera Enthusiasts
Photographic Arts Society
Southern California Association of Camera Clubs
Camera Pictorialist of San Diego
Camerart Club of Chula Vista
Carlsbad Camera Club
Century Travel & Photography Club
Convair Camera Club
Darkroomers Photographic Club
Daytime Camera Club
Fallbrook Camera Club
General Atomics Camera Club
Helix Showmasters
La Mesa Camera Club
La Mesa Movie Makers
Lens and Shutter Camera Club
Lens Art Camera Club
North Island Camera Club
Pacific Beach Camera Club
Photo Arts Camera Club
Photo Naturalist Camera Club
Photo Pictorialist
Poly Photo Camera Club
Pro-Am Club of National City
Rancho Bernardo Camera Club
San Diego Amateur Movie Club
San Diego Camera Club
San Diego Photoshop Users Group
San Diego Portrait Club
San Diego Press Photographers San Diego
San Diego Stereo Club
Sierra Club - The Photo Section
Tuesday Morning Workshop
Thursday Morning Workshop
Vista Camera Club
La Jolla Camera Club
Coronado Camera Club
Foto Learners Camera Club
Showette Camera Club
Escondido Camera Club
North County Video Makers
Digital Workshop
Pixels Photo Club

Saturday, January 23, 2016

The Sexagesimus Sextus Anniversary of SCACC

The San Diego Association of Camera Clubs will see its 66th anniversary this coming February 2016. Imagine, Sixty-six years in Balboa Park, the gem of San Diego. Sixty-six years of teaching, learning, competitions, friendships. Sixty-six years of bringing photography to the community of San Diego.
The Photographic Arts Society (PAS) of San Diego filed as an Articles of Incorporation in the State of California on September 1, 1937. There was a boom in photography after World War II and by the closing years of the 1940s there were twelve member camera clubs under the responsibility of the Photographic Arts Society.
Dr. Watson referred to the member clubs of the Photographic Arts Society as the “associated camera clubs”[1] as early as February 1947. By November 1949 Carl F. Reupsch, Photographic Arts Society President sent letters to all member clubs which included the following,
“…the name of the organization should possibly be changed to, “The Southern California Association of Camera Clubs”, which better expresses the intent and purpose of the organization. Any name, in fact, would be satisfactory which designates this society as a group of camera clubs rather than an organization composed of individual members.” [2]

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

San Diego YMCA Camera Club

The earliest camera club in San Diego was formed in 1900 and named the San Diego Camera Club. As a matter of interest the San Diego Camera Club was found as a member club of the Photographic Arts Society in 1942. I doubt that this was the 1900 club.

Harold A. Taylor founded the YMCA Camera Club in January 1920. This is the same Harold A. Taylor who helped found the Camera Enthusiasts in 1927. He was involved with the Photographic Arts Society and had a hand in reforming that group into the Southern California Association of Camera Clubs (SCACC) in 1950. He remained active in the member photography clubs of SCACC for the opening years of 1950s.

The San Diego YMCA had their first photographic exhibit in the summer of 1920. About fifty prints that represented the best of the club were hung in the lobby of the YMCA Building.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

The Structure of Research

The collection of information for a history of Camera Clubs in Balboa Park is a huge task. In spans a time period of 1927 to the present. It is the story of the men and women who created, grew and maintained the clubs through that stretch of time. It is not only the history of Balboa Park; but also the history of a 150 years of San Diego.

I have chosen to use Evernote, a cross-platform app designed for note taking, organizing, and archiving information.

The app allows users to create a "note" which can be a piece of formatted text, a full webpage or webpage excerpt, a photograph, a voice memo, or a handwritten "ink" note. Notes can also have file attachments. Notebooks can be added to a stack while notes can be sorted into a notebook, tagged, annotated, edited, given comments, searched, and exported as part of a notebook.

This massive amount of information is able to be tamed with the creation of a Table of Contents which is hyperlinked to specific areas within a notebook named "Camera Clubs of Balboa Park". Specific information is able to be located easily with the Table of Contents, Tags and Search functions.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

On the Finding of a Treasure

Members of the Southern California Association of Camera Clubs had general cleanup of the Photographic Arts Building during the Spring of 2013.

SCACC and the member clubs had occupied the building since 1960. There was an incredible amount of material that had collected over the occupancy of SCACC and the member clubs. Much was thrown away; but an incredible collection of ephemera relating to camera clubs in Balboa Park was discovered.

The discoveries included:
  • Slide collections from past members
  • Prints mounted on 16x20 mat board
  • Information on several past Dr. Scott Watson Memorial Salons
  • Information of club rosters, some with dates
  • Photographs of SCACC members
  • Club letters and memos from Dr. Scott Watson
  • Information about SCACC's involvement with the San Diego Fair
  • Information about the pre-1960s Photographic Arts Building
  • Several bits of notes, checks, bills, etc.
  • And so much more