Rob Kershaw ARPS, Swiss Chapter Organiser
I was born in Liverpool in 1952 and graduated from Liverpool University with a postgraduate degree in Biochemistry. I joined ILFORD Limited in 1977 working in sales and marketing roles in the UK then Japan for four years. Following a brief return to the UK I moved to the Swiss operation in 1988.Prior to the closure of ILFORD Imaging Switzerland in December 2013 I held the position of OEM Business Director and Regional Sales Director Asia Pacific. I was involved with ILFORD ink jet printing products since their introduction in 1995. Following the demise of ILFORD I have set up my own consultancy company based in Switzerland, Afilion Sàrl, specialising in ink jet, toner fusion & Indigo consumables sales and marketing.
Married, with 3 children my main interests are photography and sport. I joined the RPS in the mid-seventies whilst at university, after taking up photography in 1971. I gained an LRPS in 1977 and my ARPS in 1986. I am a member of Digital, Contemporary, Creative, Visual Arts, Documentary, Analogue and Travel Groups and participate in two group e-circles. I made the change to digital cameras in 2004 but I still have a working darkroom at home. I have used Pentax cameras since 1975 and now use K1 & K3 bodies. I held two photo exhibitions in Tokyo one in London, one at the Members Gallery in the Octagon and several in Switzerland. I have had my work published in several photographic magazines in the UK and Japan. I am a regular contributor to Inscape magazine. In addition to being the Chapter Organiser I also run an e-circle for the members.
Jill Taylor ARPS, Secretary
My two degrees of Anatomy and Physiology from Bristol university and Optometry from Manchester university have been a useful basis for my interest in photography. Having started in the days of 35mm film cameras (I still possess an Olympus OM1 and 2) and use of my own dark room, I moved onto digital cameras in 2013. I bought myself the digital OMD EM5 and found a suitable adapter to enable me to use my old Olympus Zuiko lenses.
Regular participation in the Chapter’s e-circle has been a steep learning curve in appreciating the differences between the old and newer methods. I’m discovering the parallels plus the disadvantages, especially in black and white photography, of the newer technology. My thirty year plus monochrome prints still show the richness of the deep blacks, something I find more problematic in digital photography.
Now retired and having invested in a full format camera, professional printer and a new Olympus 4/3 mirrorless camera, there’s lots of software to get familiar with. Membership of the RPS, the Swiss chapter’s activities plus subscription to the Contemporary and Conceptual and Landscape special interest groups, keep me busy.
Richard Tucker FRPS, Treasurer
1963 Photographer for Yorkshire Evening Post and Doncaster Chronicle.
1967 Postgraduate degree in Radio Film and Television, Bristol University.
1967-70 lecturer in film and tv - made more than 70 productions.
1970-84 Scottish Council for Educational Technology - production of film, video and AV multimedia, for education and training.
1984-90 Director of Educational Technology at Netherlands Institute for Audiovisual Media.
1992 Head of Projects at the Dutch Students Library for the Blind.
1998 Deputy Director, FORCE Foundation responsible for projects supporting libraries for the blind in Africa and the former Soviet Union - in these last two posts, despite working with blind and visually impaired, used photography for reporting and publication. Exhibitions have been held in Brittany (France), The Hague (four exhibitions).
Now retired and living in Switzerland I am concentrating on portraiture and landscape as well as revisiting 50 years of archive material. A second exhibition in Switzerland, a study of a year in the work of a country pastor, is being repeated in December 2012 and will shown again in 2013.