April 7 Guest Speaker: Celebrated SSCC Member Henry Ng

A member of SSCC since 1974, Henry Ng rounds out the guest speaker roster of our photography masters as we celebrate the club’s 65th anniversary.

An internationally recognized photographer, Henry has been involved with this art for over 45 years. He was born in China, raised in Hong Kong, and immigrated to the US at age 18. When he was 13, his interest in photography awakened, and to this day, his preferred subjects cover a wide range: people, landscapes, human-interest subjects, nature, sports, and creative photography. He actively participates in the International Exhibition of Photography competitions from all over the world and has an exceptional international competition record. He was ranked a number of times among the Worldwide Top 10 Exhibitors in five categories of the “Who’s Who in Photography,” published by the PSA (Photographic Society of America). In 2005, he was ranked first in the world in both pictorial color slides and photo travel images (2005 and 2006). Henry’s striking images are frequently selected for publication in the International Exhibition catalogs, and his award-winning photographs are represented in the PSA “TOPS in Photography” program.

henryNg Before we look further at Henry’s enormous photographic accomplishments, let’s examine his role in SSCC. He served as our vice president from 2003-2005 and as our PSA representative from 2005-2008. Amazingly, Henry won the Photographer of the Year award eight times (advanced level) and was awarded the Master of Photography in 2004, when he had accumulated over 300 points in competitions. Henry also received our Len Tuchin Award for best in show of the year-end competition, the Joyce Bayley Award in the annual nature competition, and the club’s Service Award.

From 2005-2007, Henry served as vice chairman of the PSA Mid-Atlantic Chapter…but that’s only a small hint at his extraordinary involvement in and dedication to PSA. Besides winning many awards in the international exhibitions competitions, Henry was invited to serve as the PSA’s Image Collections vice president and served as a member of the PSA board of directors in 2007. After serving the maximum allowable three terms as PSA vice president (2007-2013), the PSA board created a new position and appointed Henry as the PSA ambassador in 2013 to represent PSA in the world photographic community. He currently also serves on many PSA committees.

With his outstanding service and contributions to PSA and the world photographic community, Henry was selected a Fellow of PSA and in 2014 was awarded the PSA president’s award – one of the two highest awards that the organization confers. In 2015, he was named for the Peabody Award by PSA for his contributions to advance the photographic art. In addition to his PSA service, Henry also serves as an adviser for the Photographic Society of New York; CCACC in Maryland; Houston Chinese Photographic Society; Asian American Photographic Salon Exhibitors Association in Los Angeles; Alberta Photon Camera Club in Canada; Hong Kong Art Photographic Association; and the Photographic Salon Exhibitors Association in Hong Kong. He is often invited to judge in the international exhibition competitions and has conducted photography seminars for camera clubs in the US, Canada, and a number of other countries.

The list of honors and awards that Henry has won is far too long to publish in the Cable Release, but it’s clear that Henry Ng shines with extraordinary brilliance in the SSCC constellation of superb photographers.

March 17: Education Night

Who, What, Where, When, Why??

Investigating photography will be the topic tonight. This will be an interactive learning experience for all. We will breakout into groups and ask each other the burning questions that keep us up at night. Questions could be about your camera, lens, flash or anything else about photography. Someone else in the group will have an answer, opinion or offer advice for more information.

Bring your camera bag filled with the normal stuff you carry, the manual and a notebook.

We have questions and we have answers, let’s get together to bring them together.

Longwood Gardens Meetup March 7

If you plan to come to the Longwood Gardens meet-up on Monday March 7 please let me know. Also please let me know if you wish to carpool and if you are willing to drive. Potential drivers please include your address and phone numbers so we can try to match people up. We will meet briefly just outside the main entrance to the gardens about 8:50am. Once inside you will need to get a tripod permit – I have attached the form, you can save everyone some time by filling it out in advance – there will be a queue to get permits.

Thanks

Jim (Jim_Turner_1945@yahoo.com)

Tripod Permit:
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/c6223e3425ec9b8c513420f30/files/TripodPermissionForm_Longwood.pdf

Our next joint NIHCC/SSCC midweek meet-up will be on Monday March 7, 2016, to Longwood Gardens for their annual Orchid Extravaganza (http://longwoodgardens.org/). The orchids are on display indoors in the Conservatory. “Longwood’s Orchid Display is a living showcase of 300 to 500 plants at peak bloom, filling the room with their vibrant colors and delicate fragrances.” Longwood is a 2 hour drive away so we will be leaving here before 7:00am in order to arrive there by 9:00am. You can buy admission tickets on line – they are time stamped so a 9:00am ticket allows you entry at 9:00am, a 9:30am ticket at 9:30am, etc. Tripods are allowed in the conservatory from 9:00-12:00 noon so ideally we want to be in the 9:00am group. There are lots of plants other than orchids in the conservatory. Once you are inside the gardens you can stay as long as you wish. Depending on the weather there may also be some outside interest.

Education Night: Special Presentation on Black and White Photography

gregholden This evening we will have a special guest. Greg Holden will present a lecture discussing what types of subjects look good in black and white. Then, he will present “digital darkroom” processing, where he will demonstrate examples of converting a photo to B&W in both Lightroom and Silver Efex Pro.

Greg is a member of the North Bethesda Camera Club and long time friend of the Silver Spring Camera Club. He is an excellent teacher of black and white conversion. This is a presentation not to miss! Read more about Greg and see his work on his website http://www.imagesunderfoot.com.

Clifford Wheeler to Judge Still Life Competition

We’re honored this month to have Clifford A. Wheeler as our judge for the still life competition. He brings a unique sensibility to photography and is sure to offer insightful critiques on the images we show him.

clifford-wheeler Let Cliff introduce himself to us first, in his own words: “As a photography major in a school of fine art, I was often asked to photograph artwork for other students…the painters, sculptors, and printmakers I knew. And I enjoyed a reputation for color accuracy, which I then parlayed into a small studio business upon graduation. Around the same time, I began working as a commercial picture framer and started collecting the tools I would need to produce my own work from start to finish. Roughly five years later, I was offered the opportunity to become a member of a gallery of like-minded photographers in an old munitions factory in Alexandria, Virginia. As a gallery member, my job was to install the monthly exhibitions. I purchased a full size utility van to move artwork.

Flash ahead thirty years…Kodak no longer makes my favorite film, so I’ve shut down my studio operation, and as well, no longer do commercial framing. Folks did start noticing the exhibitions I was installing all around the Metro area, though. I now function as Lead Installer of Exhibitions for many area galleries and museums, designing and installing exhibitions in all media, but I prefer specializing in exhibitions of photography. I’m on my third van, and it’s coming up on 150,000 miles.”

Clifford Wheeler also gives us a fascinating glimpse into his thinking on his own photography: “Making photographs has always been an opportunity to both capture a moment when the unique combination of light and form best reflects the essence of the ‘thing itself,’ and the technical challenge of actually creating something tangible, something that can be held in the hand…and shared between individuals.

“I often do this for no other reason than sentimentality itself. Using photography to explore this world into which I was born, sometimes I’m left feeling like a writer learning the meaning of the words I will use to tell a story.”

February Speaker: Michael Borek’s Alternate Universe of Photography

As camera club members, we’re used to looking at certain kinds of photographs – dramatic landscapes, grandchildren’s faces, beautiful flowers, a grizzly bear catching a salmon, architectural exteriors, and the occasional abstract. However, there are other avenues of photography that we rarely explore. For example, we don’t pursue photojournalism, with its heart-wrenching views of wars, starvation, the underclass, or environmental degradation. Another photographic path we seldom take is the art photography shown in galleries, such as Multiple Exposures in the Torpedo Factory.

Our speaker this month, Michael Borek (website), will take us down that path. Some of his images he describes as “multi-layered, absurd, surreal.” Many are strange, with cerebral overtones. Often, they seem to reveal a particularly Eastern European slant. But they are always haunting.

A photographer and freelance interpreter now based in Bethesda, MD, Michael Borek is originally from Prague, Czech Republic. Only after graduating from the School of Economics in the 1980s, did he realize that he did not want to work as an economist under the old regime. Instead, he took a job as a night watchman, while attending intensive English courses during the day. After passing the required exams, he started working as a freelance interpreter, which gave him more flexibility to pursue his interests. One of them, photography, stayed with him all of his life, and later turned into his second career.

Borek grew up in what he describes as “newly created, cheerless urban landscapes.” He found these constructions depressing and was instead drawn to older buildings. That these old structures were dilapidated and deteriorating only added to their appeal. After he moved to the United States in 1992, Borek continued to be fascinated by the “visual archeology” of urban decay, and the suggestion that things are not as they seem.

In 2006, Borek became a member of the Multiple Exposures Gallery in the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia, and he started showing his photographs. In 2008, he had a solo exhibition at the Czech Embassy in Washington, DC, and, in 2009, he was a featured artist in the Rayko Gallery in San Francisco. During the last five years, his photographs from the abandoned lace factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, were selected for juried shows by curators from the Corcoran, Whitney, Hirshhorn, Getty, and Phillips museums, and one of them won second prize in the fine art category of the international competition of FotoWeek DC in Washington, DC.

Borek’s Scranton Lace project was also covered by New York Times and Daily Mail. In 2011, one of Borek’s solo exhibitions featuring his works from this portfolio was ranked as one of the ten best photography exhibitions in Washington, DC, by photography critic Louis Jacobson. In 2012, the Maryland State Arts Council awarded Borek an Individual Artist Award and Grant. In 2013, the US Embassy in the Czech Republic presented a solo retrospective exhibition of Borek’s photography at the American Center in Prague, and in May 2014 this exhibition was shown in Pilsen, Czech Republic.

In June 2014 Borek had a solo exhibition at the Czech Embassy in Washington, DC, as a part of celebration of 90th anniversary of death of Franz Kafka. In 2015, Borek’s photo from his new series Treachery of Images won first prize in FotoWeek DC competiton Places of DC. In July 2015, Borek had his first solo exhibition in New York City at the BBLA Gallery in the Bohemian National Hall where he presented his project What Would Sudek Do?