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

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]

The Photographic Arts Society: 1949

The Camera Enthusiasts had a vision of a single club that would serve all photogrphers when they were founded in 1927. Yet eight years after their founding they had a partner, the Camera Pictorialists of San Diego.

The Photographic Arts Society (founded 1937) had a member club, the San Diego Camera Club, by 1941.There was a boom in camera clubs after the close of World War II. Dr. Scott Watson unofficially renamed the Photographic Arts Society (PAS) to the Photographic Arts Society and Associated Clubs by 1948.

There were twelve camera clubs under the umbrella of the Photographic Arts Society in 1949. They were:

• Amateur Movie Club of San Diego (1949-2004)
• Camerart Camera Club of Chula Vista (1947)
• Coronado Camera Club (1947)
• La Jolla Camera Club (1947)
• La Mesa Camera Club (1947)
• Lens Art Camera Club (1947)
• Pacific Beach Camera Club (1947)
• The Photo Pictorialist (1947)
• Poly Photo Camera Club (1947)
• Pro-Am Club of National City (1947)
• San Diego Press Photographers Club (1947?)
• San Diego Camera Club (1942-1953)

It was clear to Dr. Scott Watson that the PAS had become something much different than what was intended in 1927 and 1937. He died before continuing with plans at a reorganization of the PAS's respondsibilities. That task fell to Carl Reupsch, the new president of the PAS. The Southern California Association of Camera Clubs was formed in 1950.

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.

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.

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

1927: A Beginning

Dr. Reginald Poland, the Director of the Fine Arts Gallery, called photographers to a meeting in February 1927. These camera enthusiasts would consider the formation of a camera club in Balboa Park.

The “Camera Enthusiasts” photography club had its inaugural meeting in August of 1927 with Harold A. Taylor presiding as the first president. There was an initiation fee of $1.00 with a yearly membership of $3.00. Meetings were to be held within the Fine Arts Gallery on the last Tuesday of each month. There were also monthly photographic outings to picturesque localities of San Diego.

A notable achievement of the Camera Enthusiasts was the creation and running five annual exhibition salons: the first three were regional “Pacific Coast” exhibitions while the last two were International salons. The guide book for the 1935 California-Pacific Exposition regarded that year’s salon as “the most important event of its kind to be held in the United States this year.”

The club’s name was changed to the Photographic Arts Society in 1936. The new name reflected its cultural contributions to the city of San Diego. Several local and traveling exhibitions were hosted by the organization which was lead by a Yankee dentist; Dr. Scott Watson.

This organization continued to grow beyond the conception of its original mandate. By the end of the 1940s several other camera clubs has aligned their selves with the Society. The group recognized this change by calling itself the Photographic Arts Society and Associated Camera Clubs.

The Southern California Association of Camera Clubs grew from those beginnings to incorporate 23 camera clubs by 1985.

This blog will delve into the history of these clubs and the men and women who guided them through the decades.