EPS Group Meetings

Background

Wednesday Evenings

Since its inception, Edinburgh Photographic Society has reserved Wednesdays for its main meetings.

This has left the rest of the week for sections and groups within EPS to hold their meetings. These have played an important part in the development of the society.

Popular Meetings

Throughout its history, Wednesday has been the evening on which EPS has held its main lecture each week.

Particularly in the early days of the Society, some meetings were directed at an audience beyond the membership of EPS. For the first forty years (1861-1901) a series of Popular Meetings was held.

There were typically between two and five meetings spread over the winter months. Attendance at these could be as high as 1,000. See notes titled: Popular Meetings for further details.

Exhibition Entertainment

Annual Photographic Exhibitions have been held throughout the Society’s history. Two Major Exhibitions were held in the 19th Century (1876 and 1890). At the second of these, a tradition of providing Exhibition Entertainment for visitors was started.

This tradition continued until 1937. The entertainment varied from year to year and included concerts, music, educational lectures, travelogues and displays of lantern slides.

Edinburgh Photographic Club

Another Group within EPS was the Edinburgh Photographic Club. This was, in effect, a club within a club, open by invitation to 30 or 40 of the more senior members of EPS.

The Edinburgh Photographic Club operated from 1881 to 1948, though it was more active and influential in the early years of this period.

Cycling and Golf

There were other Groups within the Society which did not hold lectures. Some of these groups were thrived for only a couple of years. In particular, the EPS Cycling Camera Corps (1898-99), and the EPS Golf Club (1903-05).

Groups Meetings

1892

In 1892, the year that EPS first acquired its own premises there were established:

- the Lantern Slide group

- the Elementary group, which continued under different names including the Popular Photography group (1897-1916).

1919

Group activity came to a halt during the First World War; then started again with the creation of:

- the Practical Group (1919)

- the Beginners’ Group (1920)

- the Pictorial Group (1923).

1929

These were followed by:

- the Portfolio Group (1929)

- the Technical Group (1936).

But it was the 2nd World War that again brought a halt to almost all group activities , only the Portfolio Group continuing.

1950s

Within a couple of years of EPS moving into its own premises in Great King Street in 1955 there was a wide range of activities to choose from. By 1957, there were meetings at the new promises on:

- Mondays: Colour Group

- Thursdays: Beginners’ Group

- Fridays: Studio Group

- Fridays: Pictorial Group

- Fridays: Record Group

Instruction

Instructional courses continued under various titles:

- Beginners’ Courses

- Refresher Courses

- Instructional Courses [1 and 2]

- Improvers’ Courses

- New Members’ Course

1960s and later

Further Sections and groups have since established:

- Colour Printing Group (1967)

- Practical Section (1968)

- Advanced Section (1969)

- Natural History Group (1975)

- Nature Group - alternative name for Natural History Group

- Audio-Visual Group (1988)

- Digital Imaging Group (1998).