Bill Text: VA HJR359 | 2024 | Regular Session | Enrolled
Bill Title: Commending the Virginia Professional Photographers Association.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2024-03-07 - Bill text as passed House and Senate (HJ359ER) [HJR359 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2024-HJR359-Enrolled.html
WHEREAS, the Virginia Professional Photographers Association will celebrate the end of its 125th anniversary year in March 2024; and
WHEREAS, the earliest recognition of the existence of what became the Virginia Professional Photographers Association was in a photograph published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch with the caption "the Virginia-North Carolina Photographers at their fourth annual Convention held in Richmond in August 1900"; and
WHEREAS, for 125 years, there has been an association of professional photographers active in Virginia; oral history asserts that the association functioned steadily until World War II with notable Virginia photographers A. W. Orphin, Fred Hamblin, Billy Lum, A. L. "Tony" Dementi, W. E. "Happy" Cheyne, and Ralph Holsinger serving in leadership roles from 1928 to 1939; and
WHEREAS, around 1930, the governor of Virginia appointed an examining board to oversee the photographic industry, and potential photographers had to pass an exam to qualify; the Act to Regulate and Control the Practice of Photography of 1938 officially regulated the industry; and
WHEREAS, the Virginia Professional Photographers Association continued to operate during World War II, but did not resume hosting activities and conventions until after the war; and
WHEREAS, in 1950, Robert A. Dementi of Richmond led the reorganization of the Virginia Professional Photographers Association and devoted his life to promoting the ideals of the association; and
WHEREAS, it was not until 1958 that women were taken seriously in the photography profession in Virginia; for many decades, women remained a distinct minority, with many photographers relying on women to perform the highly skilled accounting, marketing, and retouching tasks, but always in the background; and
WHEREAS, the Virginia Professional Photographers Association elected its first woman president in 1958; to date, there have been 71 association presidents, 17 of whom were women; and
WHEREAS, education is paramount to the continued success of the Virginia Professional Photographers Association; professional skill sets are constantly changing, and the association strives to provide access to information on technology and programs that allow members to further expand and develop the craft, adhering to the motto "Quality isn't accidental, it's the result of intelligent effort"; and
WHEREAS, above all, the Virginia Professional Photographers Association has valued integrity and ethics, requiring that ethical business practices be demonstrated by all their members; and
WHEREAS, the Virginia Professional Photographers Association's current membership more broadly reflects the diversity of American society with education and ethical business practices reinforced in every program, meeting, and personal interaction; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby commend the Virginia Professional Photographers Association on the occasion of its 125th anniversary; and, be it
RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the Virginia Professional Photographers Association as an expression of the General Assembly's admiration for the organization's work to advance the field of photography throughout the Commonwealth.
