Photographic Society of Philadelphia 150th Anniversary at The Plastic Club, 247 Camac Street, Philadelphia PA through November 2012

Photographic Society of Philadelphia, Debbie Lerman, Octopus Martini

Photographic Society of Philadelphia Sesquicentennial Anniversary

Photographic Society of Philadelphia, John Baccile, The Truce

Established in 1862, after informal meetings beginning in 1860, The Photographic Society of Philadelphia, the oldest continuously active photographic society in the United States, marks its 150^th anniversary with a major exhibition opening on November 4th, 2012 at The Plastic Club Galleries on the Avenue of the Artists in Center City Philadelphia.

The juried exhibition, which will be open Sundays November 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th from 1:00 – 5:00pm and Tuesday evening November 20th from 6:00 – 9:00pm, can be experienced at The Plastic Club, 247 Camac Street, Philadelphia, PA.

Presenters include many of the outstanding ninety-six members of PSoP – some who have shown their work in galleries throughout the US, Europe and Philadelphia. The exhibition was juried by a panel of three distinguished members of the photographic community – Kyle Cassidy, JJ Tiziou and Martin McNamara. The jurors used a value point system on a spreadsheet, each juror scored every photograph and the totals were tallied to decide the awards. The award system was designed and implemented by Karen Schlechter, other members of the jury committee included DoN Brewer and Paul Olsen. Normally The Photographic Society of Philadelphia does not give awards instead the mission is to share knowledge but since this show is such an historic event, awards were deemed appropriate and celebratory.

The Photographic Society of Philadelphia received a lovely letter from the White House signed by President Barack Obama, a Proclamation from the City of Philadelphia celebrating November 4th, 2012 as The Photographic Society of Philadelphia Day, signed by the Mayor Michael Nutter and a signed proclamation from President Obama celebrating November as National Arts and Humanities Month.

Photographic Society of Philadelphia, Bill Myers, Love Junk Taxi Park

DoNArTNeWs interviewed The Photographic Society of Philadelphia president Eileen Eckstein and asked what she would want the world to know about the historic photo society,the third oldest in the world?

Eileen Eckstein: “How it survived? And why it survived? It was a about five years ago we had an incredible meeting space at Broad and Race Streets, Philadelphia. Parking was free after 6:30pm, and at the most, no matter how good the presenter was, we some excellent, excellent presenters, there was never more than four or five people at the meeting. It was off the beaten track but easy parking, we had about twenty members, paid members, at that time. And then, we couldn’t rent the space in that building anymore, it was the Packard Motor Car Building, because the people who were our members who lived in the building has moved.”

Photographic Society of Philadelphia, Glenn Benge, Portrait in Protest III

Eileen Eckstein: “We looked for another space and we found The Plastic Club. And an amazing thing happened, once we started to have our meetings at The Plastic Club we started to get members attending our presentations. Parking is a nightmare and yet we would get twenty to twenty-five people at a meeting and our membership started to grow. And it was like, ‘What is happening?’ And then there were some art exhibits, including photography and paintings, and it was at the church on Rittenhouse Square, and I met Dan Chow. And Daniel was a special name to me because that was my father’s name. And it was like a mystic combination of people.”

Photographic Society of Philadelphia 150th Anniversary at The Plastic Club

Eileen Eckstein: “I knew nothing about websites, we had a non-existant website, and Dan just said, ‘You guys need to let people know about you and you need a website.’ And Dan started our website. And before you knew it, we started to get more members. And we could get forty-five people showing up at our third Tuesday meetings. And so, it’s just been a crazy combination of the art gods, that’s how I like to put it, the aura of The Plastic Club, which was started by women in the 1800s, The Photographic Society of Philadelphia which was started by people so dedicated to photography and so determined to share photography and the techniques – the sharing and sharing and sharing – and that’s what did it.”

Photographic Society of Philadelphia, Gene Renzi, 911 Memorial New York

Eileen Eckstein: “And so now we have almost 100 members, we have this show – it’s extraordinary – I think the caliber of work in the show is super-professional. And it’s just like I said it’s the artistic gods have just blessed us. We’re growing and we’re growing and we’re growing. And we have great members who have really good input and are real concerned with helping us reach, maybe not in our lifetimes, but at some point, the next 150 years.”

Photographic Society of Philadelphia 150th Anniversary

DoNArTNeWs asked President Eckstein about the Made in America trend that’s happening now and what her thoughts are about buying photography?

Eileen Eckstein: “It’s a great product and it sure is Made in America! It sure is made by your friends and neighbors. And it definitely has a unique value, I mean, it’s a one-of-a-kind personal type of product that if you give it as a gift, I think that the person would be super-pleased. One – because I think photography has a way of capturing the photographer’s soul. It’s a one time opportunity – you push the shutter and you get an image and it’s unique. And, yes, you can mass produce them, you can do all sorts of things with them, but still each one has a uniqueness. I think they would make excellent gifts.”

Photographic Society of Philadelphia 150th Anniversary

DoNArTNeWs asked about the price points the photographers have chosen?

Eileen Eckstein: “The prices are super-reasonable! I think every efforts been made by the photographers to keep the price affordable. You know, I think the work is worth a whole lot more than the prices that the people are asking.”

DoNArTNeWs asked what to say to people who don’t “get” photography?

Eileen Eckstein: “Photography is an art form. It’s definitely an art form. It’s one of many art forms. And it’s unique. Everybody has a camera, everybody has a cell phone, everybody takes pictures, and no matter where you go, everybody is taking pictures. But, there is something special about the caliber of the work in this show. It wasn’t done with a cell phone, it wasn’t carelessly done as a snapshot, and I think that’s the difference. The work in the show is not snapshots, it’s artistically conceived artwork.”

Photographic Society of Philadelphia 150th Anniversary, Award Winners

Award winners John Benigno, Benner, Robert Reinhardt, Deb Lerman, Rick Wright with The Photographic Society of Philadelphia president Eileen Eckstein and veep Morris Klein.

Support the effort of The Photographic Society of Philadelphia and The Plastic Club, purchase a photographic work of art that is also an historical object you can share for a lifetime.