Club Beginnings
Fifty years ago a man by the name of Nat Scherer was teaching photography in adult education at Huntington HS. His students were so excited about photography and their teacher that Mike Macchiarella decided he would like to form a photography club so he approached Nat to be the President and Nat agreed. Nat at that time was a photographer for Grumman. Nat so enjoyed teaching photography that he quit his job at Grumman and became a photography curriculum developer and later a photography teacher at Boces and various technical schools. Mike Macchiarella and Tom Mangan, and the following year Mike Azzato, were among the first members of HCC so Nat’s teaching was transformative for everyone. Nat became a teacher and the first President of HCC and the others had a camera club….and the rest is history.
In the early days there were 10-25 members as the years passed and everyone eventually had a chemical darkroom. There was no color photography, only slides and black and white. Meetings were held in each other’s homes. Communication of news or scores was all done in writing and everyone got a hard copy.
Tom Mangan was our 2nd President. He was in Nat’s class with Mike Macchiarella so he was one of the earliest members with Mike Macchiarella. Tom was teaching at the time and had recently gotten married at West Point….and guess who one of the photographers at the wedding was…Nat, our first President.Tom was responsible for the first constitution of the Club and for its revisions in the early years.
Mike Azzato was our 3rd President. Mike excels at portraiture and won many first places in competition. Mike remembers being in a photo competition judged by Leonard Victor… the most prestigious year end competition at PFLI is named in his honor. Mike came in first place and his portrait was of Frank O’Brien’s daughter! Frank was one of our earliest and most beloved members who just recently passed…and Frank had 6 daughters! Mike is a former teacher who is now in real estate.
Mike Macchiarella was the guy that really wanted a camera club and did most of the leg work to set up the club, get members, and get Nat to be President. Mike owned a store at the time and knew a lot of the locals. He went around town posting signs in schools and stores and approached Lenny, the well-known owner of L & L camera. Lenny sent his Nikon and Kodak reps over to HCC for lectures and demos. At that time the club was meeting in people’s homes. Mike approached Ed Abrahamson who was on the library board and Ed agreed that the club could meet in the library. Ed later joined the club and eventually became the sixth president. Mike is a veteran of WWII who stormed Normandy beach in a tank. He is the proud recipient of 3 bronze stars.
And then there’s Nat Scherer. When Nat first started as President, the club was originally 10 people and eventually grew to 25. People brought pictures and helped each other and then they started getting guest speakers. Nat used Nikon and Hasselblad cameras. Nat's wife, Marsha, did macro photography. Nat now proudly talks of his wife’s artistic work in glass. He said she used to help me…now I help her.