Photographic Society of Madras, 1st Society for Photography in India and the 2nd in World was founded in 1857 by Dr. Alexander Hunter, who also established the Madras School of Industrial Arts (the present day College of Arts, Chennai). European Elites were the members of the society in the early days. The society met regularly in the premises of the School of Industrial Arts. Mr. Hunter had organized National Salons, which in due course took on the character of an International exhibition. Inspite of Photography being an expensive hobby in yester years, the society had active membership and won great acclaim.
The Society went into a decline with the First World War in 1914 and the call to the battlefield of many enthusiasts. Thiru A. Arunachalam , a young lawyer felt the need to revive the activities of the Society and re-registered the Madras Amateur Photographic Society on 26 October 1932 with Mr. Howard Oakley as its Patron. It later reverted to its original name and continues to be known as the Photographic Society of Madras. The Photographic Society of Madras is proud today to celebrate 150 years of its contributions to Photography.
Mr. K.O Isaac, president of PSM takes us through the memory Lane of 150 years of PSM on an One on One Interaction session:
Isaac: “This is a place for anybody who is interested in Photography, who can appreciate art and aesthetics. Though the society took a toll several times, today we feel proud to celebrate 150 years of its contribution to photography”
Nirmala: Do you have the early day’s photographs in your archives?
Isaac: It is quite unfortunate that most of the Old Photographs are in Victoria Albert Museum. We are taking measures to retrieve them from there and bring to it to our Nation.
Do you recollect any significant happening of those days?
Isaac: Though there are many, I would like to mention about a Post Man who was highly passionate about photography. He had a small car shed converted as his developing room. He stored all his photographs there and one day, a flood washed away everything. We do not know what the valuable documentation we missed was.
Can you explain about the National Salon
Isaac: National Salon is a yearly Photography Competition. We receive approximately 2000 entries from all over the world. Out of that 10% goes for display. The judges will select 3 best photographs in 6 categories. We had Padmashree Raghu Roy as a chief guest once, which is a memorabilia for us.
Tell us something about your members…
Isaac: We have members from all walks of life including Surgeons, Industrialists, Students, Art Critics and we have photographs of all kinds ranging from Street scenes to macro photography.
Do you have Photographers from the Film and Advertising Industry as well?
Isaac: Yes Mr. Rajeev Menon, Mr. Alphone Roy N.G a wild life photographer for National Geographic channel, Mr. Sharad Haksar, Mr. G. Venkatram as our Members. We have Mr. T.N.A. Peruman an eminent wildlife photographer as an advisor on the Board.
If photography was not there, we would never have captured the important moments in history, the best moments of one’s life, the magnificent Temples of India, the wonders of the World, the wild life and many more. The technological advancement through Digital Cameras have brought several revolutions in photography and made negatives, developers etc extinct. Societies like PSM could be a place for the Nex-Gen to see such archaic treasures.
Their next salon is scheduled between 18th August, 2009 to 23rd August, 2009 at Lalit Kala Acadamy, Greams Road, Chennai – 60006
Photographic Society of Madras
Administrative Address
55, 3rd East Street,
Kamaraj Nagar,
Thiruvanmiyur,
Chennai-600 041.
Ph: +91 44 42020956
Fax: +91 44 42020501
E-Mail
Information : focus@photomadras.org
Website/Forum Admin: webmaster@photomadras.org