Paul Eggermann of the Raritan Photographic Society, Milltown, took a picture of a house in Sea Bright to demonstrate the destruction caused by the power of superstorm Sandy. PHOTO COURTESY OF PAUL EGGERMANN MILLTOWN — The love of photography is what brings the Raritan Photographic Society together.
It is New Jersey’s oldest photo club, which started in 1929. This year marks 85 years.
Members from that era have since moved on, but the newer generation of the photo club continues what those members started.
To become a member of the club, it is very simple — one must love photography and being around like-minded people.
“We are a community that shares knowledge with each other,” said Paul Eggermann, who has been involved with the club for more than 10 years. “We don’t get any government funding; we run solely on membership. We share the love of photography.”
The society meets the second and fourth Thursday of every month from September to May at the American Legion Hall in Milltown.
It is open to anyone interested in photography, from novices to professionals.
On the second Thursday of every month, there are people from the profession that host lectures, demonstrations, discussions or activities, such as a studio night.
Tonight, Larry Zink will come and talk about “Naturally New Jersey.” Zink is the manager/head photographer for all catalogs and most advertisement work for the Macy’s department store.
However, Zink dabbles in photographing nature, which he will show the group during his talk.
On the fourth Thursday of each month, the society holds member competitions in black-and-white prints, color prints and digital images at the beginner, advanced and salon levels. Themes can range from “Anything Goes,” which was last month’s theme, to “Fantasy and Imagination,” which is this month’s competition.
Eggermann said this month’s theme may be the hardest he has ever seen.
“I have not thought out what I am going to do,” he said.
During the competitions, members get positive critiques from the judges that are brought in for the competitions. Awards and ribbons are given out to the top winners.
Peter van der Does of East Brunswick said his dad loved photography, but he never really picked it up until four years ago.
“Mostly I take photos on family vacations,” he said. “I like architecture and nature. … I don’t really like photos with people in it.”
Van der Does said being part of the Raritan Photographic Society has opened his eyes in so many different directions regarding photography.
“The competitions motivate me because some photo ideas that people present at the competitions I would have never thought of on my own.”
Member Bill Petscavage said he agreed with van der Does.
“I am just impressed with all the work displayed,” he said.
In the last competition, there was a closeup photo of a seashell, which Petscavage said he probably would have bypassed walking on the beach.
“I was just amazed that someone saw that,” he said.
Petscavage said that when he got remarried 10 years ago, he picked up his wife’s hobby of photography.
“I attended meetings and just watched for a year before I started entering the competitions,” he said. “I was really impressed by all the work.”
“I look at everybody else’s, and I am blown away by the creativity and the broad range of photographs,” he said, adding that his favorite things to photograph are flowers and nature.
Eggermann’s wife Barbara said she has always loved taking photographs, noting that she previously has taken graphic design courses.
“I learn a lot by being in the club,” she said. “I like taking photos of people, and I like my photos to tell stories.”
As for the different themes, Barbara Eggermann said the theme of fog was pretty hard because of what they had to work with.
“It’s just so flat, gray and boring,” she said.
Ginny Santora of Jamesburg said her interest in photography started in college. Her interest was art at first, after growing up seeing her father drawing cartoons.
She said it was later after college when she started thinking seriously about photography and entered a contest with the Raritan Photographic Society, which opened its contest to everyone that year.
“I [subsequently] joined the society and become the program chair responsible for organizing the judges,” she said.
Santora said she has been doing landscape photography for a long time, as well as market photography. She has started her own business, Perception Images LLC.
Paul Eggermann said he is an engineer by trade and would always take photos on the job.
“My camera is always on my side,” he said. “We were at the Port Authority and I took photos of the escalator, which I entered in the black-and-white category in the competition.”
Another time walking outside in the fall, he noticed the colored leaves going down the storm grate, which he also took photographs of and submitted in one of the competitions.
“That photo won an award,” he said.
Petscavage said he organizes each competition category by folder. Barbara Eggermann said it is great filing away photos because “you may take so many of, say, a street scene, and the theme will come up and you can go through your archives.”
An important concept that the group learned over the years is to make photographs their own.
“You don’t want a great photo of someone else’s art,” Barbara Eggermann said.
For more information on the Raritan Photographic Society, visit raritanphoto.com.
Contact Kathy Chang at kchang@gmnews.com.