SPS Member: 1972 to 2020
Elected to Hall of Fame in 2021
Les Campbell is one of the best-known photographers in Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley and likely the most honored photographer in our region. At one time, he became only the second person in history to hold all three of the highest awards given by the Photographic Society of America. One of those was the Buxton Award (received in 1958) as the world’s leading exhibitor of nature prints that year. His framed photographs hang in numerous homes, businesses and institutions and have appeared in many regional and national publications, including National Geographic, National Audubon, Massachusetts Audubon, Birds and Blooms, and The Journal of Photographic Society of America. He has been nationally recognized for his pioneering work and achievements in the field of slide presentation as an art form.
Les was born in 1925. In the1940s, his passion for photography grew out of his first hobby of “birding.” It was his fascination with birds that drew him to the camera as a means of recording and sharing his enjoyment of their beauty. His search for photographic subjects quickly expanded to encompass all of nature, people, and landscapes. Les Campbell photographed the Quabbin Reservoir most of his adult life.
Les was president of the NECCC in 1955. He is credited with expanding the annual event that year to the three-day conference that ran for the next sixty-seven years. For his many contributions to the NECCC, he was a recipient of their Honorary Life Member Award.
Les was also known as an innovator. His presentation, “Gentle Shines The Light”, involved the use of 12 projectors and screens up to 48 feet in length. His son, David, recalls, “the innovative techniques he came up with to stop birds in action: When lenses were slow, film was slow, he had a 4×5 view camera with a ground glass, not a viewfinder, and no motor-drive. He didn’t have long lenses either, so he had to get the birds close to him. He did the same thing in later years with water skiers. He brought them closer and built a platform so he was looking down on them. Still had the 4×5 Graflex camera!”
His passion, and what he may be remembered most for, was his love of teaching other people his skills. He started many local camera clubs to help him do that on a larger scale and never stopped teaching for the next sixty years.
Les joined the Springfield Photographic Society in 1972, and he was a member of our club for 48 years. Many of the current club members met Les at the end of year picnics where he graciously opened his home at Sky Meadow to our club. Les opened his gallery of beautiful color prints on Sunday afternoons to all visitors, and all were thrilled to see his great photographs.
To commemorate the photography of Les Campbell, and in particular his work in the print medium, our year-end award for best large color print is now the Les Campbell Award for Large Color Print.
To learn more about the life of Les Campbell, please see his website (now maintained by his son, David). https://lescampbellphotography.com/
Click the image below to see Les Campbell’s gallery.
