Member Profiles Alex Hunter
Joined the Club: 1987. Made a Life Member in 2009. Camera: Canon 5D Photography experience: Was darkroom and film now digital and photoshop. I am an accredited FCC judge and have been judging photographic competitions in Camera Clubs for the past 40 years. Achievements – have gained many acceptances in International and National exhibitions. Favourite subjects – I consider myself an all rounder but am partial to water orientated images and people. Current position in Club: Committee member -  also president of the Northern Photographic Federation. Ambitions – would like to have a book published and maybe have an exhibition one day.     Email:Alex hunter

My photographic career has been evolving over a period of fifty-three years. The first spark of interest was ignited when I was sixteen and my first camera was a Kodak box camera Model E. It was at the leading edge of box camera technology—it actually had a pull out close up lens and yellow filter, really mind blowing stuff. There where a lot of really great cameras out there, but this was all I could afford. It was enough for my parents to realize that their eldest son could maybe be helped along the road to a worthwhile hobby, so they invested in a twin lens reflex 2 ¼ square Flexaret camera. It wasn’t a Rollie but it was a very good camera and was good enough to really encourage me to get seriously involved in photography.

I was taken under the wing of a friend of my father, Bill Boxall. The three of us worked at John Darling Colliery where I was as an apprentice boilermaker and welder. As it turned out he later Bill became a foundation member of the Belmont Camera Club. He had a darkroom and with his tuition I became good enough at twenty to successfully apply for a job as an Industrial Photographer at Stewarts and Lloyds. I worked there for twenty-five years. It was in this period that I met Barbara--she worked in the laboratory as an Industrial Chemist and she used to suck up to me by mixing my darkroom chemicals. The result of all that sucking up was we were married in 1964 and have two beautiful daughters.

I was a foundation member of the first Belmont Camera Club in approximately 1955. It lasted about four years. In 1965 I joined the Newcastle Photographic Society; I was there for eight years. I dropped out of the Camera Club scene for quite a long time raising a family etc. In 1987 I joined the Belmont 16’s Camera Club and the rest is history. I have been on the committee since 1988, Secretary for several years, and I have been Chairman for several years now. They must like me because they won’t kick me out. I love my Camera Club.

I love Monochrome more than any other form of photography. The first fifty years of my photographic life was only darkroom and B&W, dare I say that I only saw things in black and white when I was out taking my photographs. I believe that being a B&W photographer and not having colour you have to become a bit more artistic. You can achieve this by being a little bit bolder, by introducing darker or lighter areas wherever this is required to tell your story, by judicial use of contrast, by not forgetting cropping (which can really give your image IMPACT) and of course negative space. All these things can contribute to a strong dramatic and emotional image. If you can evoke an emotion in the viewer you have a successful image. One of the most important things that I can say is do not allow your photography to be controlled by rules, and remember to always try to tell a story.

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Webpage last updated 12th February 2010 (RK)