From left to right: "Leaf Mystery" by Joanne McCulloch and "Beach at Dusk" by Cheryl Powers.
Photographs freeze moments in time, but for the Don Mills Camera Club, the past 45 years have been anything but still. Founded in 1964, this dynamic club has seen its membership of photography enthusiasts swell from the small group of friends who founded it, to its current size of 83 members. In the last year alone, the Don Mills Camera Club recruited 30 people.
When the Camera Club first started weekly exhibits of its members’ work in the former Don Mills Centre back in 1973, residential woodslab doors served as display units in the open air setting. Since then, the Club has seen the Don Mills Centre transform from its original outdoor concept to a closed format, and its new, final incarnation in today’s outdoor Shops at Don Mills. The club’s journey has come full circle, with the recent exhibition of 40 prints in storefronts facing the Town Square throughout the month of May.
“When you love photography as much as our members do, sharing our work either through our meetings or in public spaces is a very important part of that passion,” says Ellen Simmons, President and nine-year member of the Don Mills Camera Club. “It was wonderful to see the community’s reaction to our work and have people relate to our depictions of personal family get togethers and vacations. That shared experience was very rewarding.”
In addition to the exhibit, the Club set up an information booth at the Shops at Don Mills that drew a dozen new members, who were eager to learn more about the club and meet fellow amateur photographers. The exhibit featured a variety of black and white as well as colour photography, taken by traditional and digital cameras and displayed using minimalist wire hangers that achieved a decidedly modern and elegant effect. Shops at Don Mills customers made offers to purchase some of the prints, and many were delighted with the return of the club’s presence here. The feedback was so positive that the Club and the Shops at Don Mills are currently exploring ways to exhibit the photography regularly, in a climate that’s safe for the prints.
From rolls of film to memory cards, door displays to wire hangers, and open air Don Mills Centre and back to the outdoor setting through the Shops at Don Mills, the Don Mills Camera Club has been through it all. One thing hasn’t changed though—a passion for photography that the community is sure to delight in for many decades to come.