LPS Club History
What began in 1971 thrives today because members have been generous, loyal, and up to date. Key members – including those whose memberships have spanned over 30 years – have welcomed newcomers with knowledge and warmth. When film faded from center stage, members sponsored the club’s first projected digital competition in June 2006. Since then, the LPS website and LPS Facebook page have kept club members engaged and connected. Indeed, photo learning and friendship enjoy a bright future through LPS.
When Clarence E. Rogers organized this club in 1971, he initiated a fellowship that has enriched the lives of its members through expert photography and lifetime friends. This APSA (Associate of the Photographic Society of America) obviously had the vision to recognize that Lafayette, Louisiana could yield a photographic society to thrive well into the third millennium. Today this club, so founded to share a common avocation, boasts some fifty or so active members.
Explaining the longevity of this organization, two attributes characterize the participants -- a simultaneous desire to learn new approaches and a willingness to help each other with photographic hurdles, fundamental for the novice or obscure even for the experienced. The membership - an amalgamation of both retired and working engineers, teachers, geologists, public relations' consultants, and housewives among others. Together the entire club hones its skills on Pictorial, Photojournalism, Black & White and Nature Photography.
In addition to the resources of the individual LPS members, the club gains support and competition opportunities from its affiliation with the Gulf States Camera Club Council, an organization of some 29 clubs in 4 states, and the Photographic Society of America, an international association of 533 clubs and councils from around the world. Learning and helping go hand in hand ...at every level.
Never an organization to escape challenge, the club sponsored the Greater Lafayette International Salon from 2004 through 2007. The exposure to superb quality images from around the world broadened the vision of the club as a whole and, in turn, raised the image quality of its members’ photography.
Most competitions, in particular, provide members with an excellent avenue for learning since an expert judge, oftentimes with national accolades, prepares a critique with positive and constructive comments on each entry. Such feedback month after month improves technical skills and shapes photographic eyes.
The members, who have joined at different stages in the club’s history (some from the initial year, others from later decades, and even some within the last year) - all share a bond made special by their appreciation of fine photography. No matter if competing individually or competing as a team, the Lafayette Photographic Society enjoys its quest for that perfect picture, a pursuit indicative of its pride in each and every member. The legacy of founder Clarence Rogers, whose history and images hang on the second floor of the Lafayette Parish Library, flourishes some thirty-nine years later.
Interest, not experience, is all it takes to join this organization. New members, no matter their level of expertise, bring a chance for the club to share and grow. Should this appeal stir your photographic tastes, do join us as guest for a meeting or activity.