The private hobby of… Swa Van Oevelen!

Swa Van Oevelen, 72, has been interested in photography since he was 14, but it took a while before it became his big hobby.

Holidays on the mountains

“We always went on vacation with our parents to the mountains in Switzerland and Austria,” says Sawa. “My dad always made slides and I wanted to, too. During high school I took photography classes on Wednesday afternoons. There I learned the whole process from taking pictures to printing. It was an interest and certainly not a hobby. After my time in the Navy, I continued to With some friends. In the meantime, I always continued to shoot.

Evening training

“In the meantime I was on the board of a youth club, but this youth club ceased after a few years. With some of them we continued photography, because in the meantime it became one of my hobbies. At the evening academy of the Nord Academy I did an evening course for six years in photography Photographer.In the early years we were with fifteen/sixteen people.Every year it became less and last year I was the only one.It was a difficult and expensive training, but it was something real to me.My teacher and I had different interests, he photographed things, I photographed People and that was always a talking point.”

Circle of pictures Kalthout

“Since the youth center was discontinued and we still wanted to continue with photography, we founded the Kalmthoutse Fotokring in 1973. It was difficult to find a site, because we had not yet been founded. In the end we managed to move into the parish house, but it burned down in 1994 and we lost all our Our property. I wanted to stop then, but the municipality offered us a space, the space we are still in now. There were four of us when we started the Kalmthoutse Fotokring and I was immediately appointed head, because I have the most knowledge. We complemented each other perfectly.”

Courses

“To raise awareness, we started offering courses in photography, which immediately attracted 27 new members! I had stage fright, because I had never done anything like this before. It was a success and soon we had forty members. Courses every year, for beginners, photoshop, lightroom, studio photography, working with reportage flashes, … We also have a multimedia department, who use their own camera to shoot. They get to know the software, how to edit, sound, … every year they make A short film, for which they write the script and act themselves. They are different people every time, with different questions and times too. In other words, it’s never boring.”

Photography is perceived differently

“We have many activities as a club and we now have 136 members, which we have divided into different sections, because they cannot all be in the room. We offer FAG (Photography Differently) to all members, which are three-year courses. The chapter meets every Wednesday, It is then three Wednesdays a month. Members receive appointments on the basis of these training courses. Each year there are two supervisors who, together with the group, present and discuss the results of the assigned tasks.”

F + and a master’s degree

“After those three years, there are people who drop out, but also want to continue. We’ve started two sections for these people: F+ and Master Class. With F+ they can go on endlessly. They get new missions and things they have to explore. In Master Class no They get any assignments. They have to choose a theme for themselves and receive feedback on their pictures. Every year we organize an exhibition for each group separately. It all takes a lot of time and effort, but this is my great hobby and it gives me great satisfaction to motivate a lot of people and have them make something beautiful.” .

www.kalmthoutsefotokring.com

Images © Swa Van Oevelen

NN