The members come from varying backgrounds, ages, levels and walks of life. . . businessmen, professionals, executives, employees . . . young, middle-aged, retired. Two bonds keep them together: friendship which the club has been developing as an objective for the last 80 plus years, and a love for photography, the enjoyment and promotion of which is another of the club’s basic objectives.
Today, the club meets regularly every first Monday of the month at the Rockwell Club, Makati City, Philippines. At these regular monthly meetings, the members socialize and hold photo competitions on themes and media according to a pre-announced annual program. The contests and fellowships are the main features of these meetings. Occasionally, the meetings might also include a model who poses for portraits by the members, or a speaker who lectures or makes presentations on some topic of interest.
In addition, the club holds “On-The-Spot” competitions in which the members gather in some specified or defined area, as near as the Quezon Memorial Circle or Corregidor or as far as the Batanes Islands or Sicogon and Boracay, for a fixed limited time in hours or days and they interact and take photographs to their hearts’ content under common conditions (sometimes in rain and storm).
HISTORY
It was on a Sunday morning in 1928 when eight gentlemen met to discuss the formation of a photography club in Manila, Philippines. They were Manuel R. de Cartagena (a photo dealer), Vicente Mills (a government official then in the Bureau of Lands), Luis Guzman (a professional photographer), Jose M. Ocampo (a broker), Bonifacio S. Araullo (a bank executive), Federico Montes (a lithographer or printer), Juan Mencarini (a linguist) and Miguel Heras (a lawyer from a ship-owning family). It was the photo dealer de Cartagena who initiated the invitation.
These gentlemen were engaged in varying occupations but had one thing in common – the love for photography. They constituted themselves into an organizing committee and elected the eldest among them, Juan Mencarini, as president, and Bonifacio S. Araullo as secretary. On the succeeding meetings, they invited other photography enthusiasts. Later, a constitution was drawn up and the group adopted the name, “Camera Club of the Philippines.”
A date was set for the formal inauguration of the club. This took place officially on August 19, 1928, in the office of one of the founders, Jose M. Ocampo, in the Paterno Building beside the then Santa Cruz (now MacArthur) Bridge just off Plaza Goiti in Manila.
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