For Elaine Herbert ARPS, photography has always been a way of engaging with the world around her. But looking back over her decades with the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), one thing stands out most clearly. “It’s the people that matter most,” she says. “They’re what you remember above everything else.”
As someone who has “always enjoyed photography,” Elaine, who hails from our Australian Chapter, has been drawn to the challenge of expressing her response to the natural environment. “For me, that was particularly getting out into the countryside (“the bush”), the beach, anywhere outdoors. It’s about seeing how I respond to the environment and how I can capture that response in my photography.”
Her love of the outdoors led her to focus on intimate details rather than sweeping landscapes - the texture of rock formations, the patterns of nature, and the play of light. It is through that sensitivity to the subtleties of her natural surroundings that she has aimed to capture the unique character and spirit of the Australian environment.
Elaine’s Associate distinction (ARPS) grew from a project close to home. A friend from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne asked if she could take photographs for a new guidebook they were creating. “I went out for the next year or more trying to cover all times of day and all seasons,” she recalls. The process took longer than planned — “There's quite a big lake in the gardens,” she explains, “and just in the middle of doing this project they decided to drain the lake and clean it out” — but it resulted in a body of work that formed the basis of both the guidebook and her ARPS submission. The images were developed by Elaine using Cibachrome, a now-discontinued colour process.
Elaine first joined the RPS in the 1970s, introduced by a friend - another keen photographer who had visited a small exhibition in the private home of a Fellow of the RPS. That introduction marked the beginning of a lifelong involvement that would see her become Honorary Secretary of the Australian Chapter, recipient of the RPS Members’ Award in 2008, and now in 2025, the latest recipient of the RPS President’s Medal.
When the RPS Council (as it was then known) encouraged the formation of overseas chapters in the mid-1980s, Elaine became involved immediately. Living in Melbourne, she joined the Victoria Chapter, which later grew to encompass all of Australia.
As the (now former) Honorary Secretary of the Australian Chapter, Elaine has helped shape its welcoming and cooperative spirit. “The way we’ve operated is to share expertise and to talk about problems with each other, but not to be competitive and say this person’s the best at this or that,” she says. “It’s amazing when you get to know people - they’re quite modest and they don’t push themselves forward, but you often find they’ve got wonderful skills.”
This collaborative atmosphere, she believes, is at the heart of the RPS. “It’s the people and the friends that matter in the long run,” she says, drawing on her experience as an avid traveller. “Yes, you can say, this is a wonderful building, and I saw this or that, but it’s the people that matter most.” Through her volunteer work, Elaine has developed long-standing friendships with members in Australia, the UK, and beyond, and values the connections that have grown over time. “I’ve met some wonderful people through the RPS both in Australia and overseas,” she says. “It’s really enriched my life.”
Elaine’s commitment to the Society extends beyond her Chapter. She became the first International Members’ Representative in 2020 where she worked to improve understanding of the Society’s overseas membership. Her research and insights in this area have been instrumental in subsequent work on the RPS strategic plan.
Having now stepped back from formal committee work, Elaine is looking forward to spending more time on her own photography. “I'm hoping to do a lot more on that and even to get more involved with a lot of the online sessions,” she says. She also enjoys attending exhibitions and lectures at the National Gallery of Victoria and other cultural events in Melbourne.
After so many years of service, Elaine says her time with the RPS has been a privilege rather than a duty. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it,” she says. “To have that role and to just be so involved in things which are stimulating, and other people are enjoying doing them - you feel that photography does have an important place in it all.”
Her contribution has been recognised with the 2025 RPS President’s Medal, presented for her long-standing service to the Australian Chapter and her dedication to strengthening links across the Society’s international community. It’s a fitting tribute for someone who has spent decades bringing people together through photography - and who continues to remind others that, in the end, it really is the people that matter most.