The Photographic Society of South Africa

For quite some time I have been pondering about starting, within the structures of the PSSA, an interest group (for lack of another name) solely for monochrome photography. With this writing I endeavour to test the water and wish to assess the interest in such a possible venture. Furthermore I wish to receive feedback from interested people on possible ways to successfully initiate and run such a group on a sustainable basis.
I may note right from the onset that this concept does carry, in principle, the approval of the PSSA directorate

Some considerations and dreams Photography (“drawing with light”) we all know was where it all started some 150 years back. A number of us “more mature” photographers will still remember the hours of happy sweating in an all but completely darkened room, filled with etching fumes and no ventilation. This is how the PSSA started in the early 50’s. Then came colour. Can we call it Chromatography? (“drawing with colour”). Whatever. Close to impossible for the average amateur and lousy colours when produced in a laboratory. Then came colour slides and voila! Possibly sweeping classical black and white faster from the table than digital has done with film. Beautiful colour rendition and so easy! Take your images, have them developed and that’s it. Most of us went that way. The quality of commercial colour printing did improve drastically and a percentage of photographers stuck to what, to my mind, can be regarded as the ultimate photograph, the print.

Then came digital. In a very short period of time film photography has all but disappeared.

However, with the rapid development of computer software and the ability to now produce monochrome images on the computer of a tonal quality that possibly surpasses that of classical dark room monochromes, a re- emergence of “Drawing with Light” is being experienced.

Disappointingly, as things stand now, monochrome is very much a stepchild in photographic circles. Yes most salons will allow you to submit images in monochrome but virtually no salon has hosted a dedicated monochrome category. No recognition is ever given for monochrome work. It simply disappears in the “pictorial” bin.

Can this be rectified? Is there enough interest among you photographers? How will we go about? What would we want to achieve? The following are just some of my dreams. Of course these are fully open to criticism (positive please).

Some of my Dreams

• A workgroup or a “virtual club” (or something) that actively and on a well organised basis pursues monochrome photography in its fullest sense. Not just monochrome per sé but broken up in categories. (landscapes, portraits etc.).
• A “club” with a well defined constitution.
• A “club” with a monthly activity that will promote monochrome photography.
• Encouragement to salon directors to include monochrome as a category in its own right.
• Full recognition by the PSSA as a division in its own right. A separate listing on the Impala ranking (like Nature) resulting in recognising the Monochrome Worker of the Year at the annual PSSA Congress.
• An annual exhibition of monochrome prints (“The ultimate photograph”!) e.g. at Congress.

I propose that we consider working through the PSSA web site. Here we can be led by the Web Master who should be able to guide us. There may be other options as well.

May I have your response, comments and above all builds please. You may send them directly to my personal e-mail address: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . I may not respond to each individual e-mail but will collate the info in a new posting on www.pssa.co.za.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Hans