Amateur Hour
/Photographic Clubs
I have called this post amateur hour because I think that’s where these prints originated from an amateur photographer’s collection.
Many decades ago, I also belonged to an amateur photographer’s club and at the time had some really nice equipment. I wish I still had it.
Occasionally, the members of the club would all contribute to hiring a model for a club night or special event, the model was more often than not an amateur herself, earning a few extra quid on the side. Members would then get to direct her and take as many pictures as they wanted, all film of course, in those days, so snapping was not quite as mad as it is nowadays. It was all very above board, and topless was normally as far as it ever went, but it was fun and certainly exciting, even though often a little awkward at times with 20 or so men directing their cameras at some poor girl who was trying to follow our very vague instructions for those that had the courage to ask.
The majority of us just took as many pictures as we could afford. I was fortunate to have my own darkroom at the time, so I did not have to run the gauntlet of the chemist a week later, and at the end of it, there was no uploading to the internet, just hoarding your own prints for your own enjoyment. Great fun.
Who else was a member of a photographic club, and have you still got any of your prints? If I get the time, I will see if I can dig out some of mine.
