Freo Graphic

FREO GRAPHIC October 2020 3 In 2017 Ivor received the President’s Award from Club President Dave Lester, in recognition of his enormous contribution to the club, not least of which was as Competition Director for seven years. The award was presented by the Mayor of Fremantle, Dr Brad Pettitt. Vale Ivor Metlizky Ivor was born in South Africa of Polish parents who fled there to escape the pogroms against Jews in the ear ly 2Oth century. From the family view, the most important person in his life was his late wife Bernice, who several of you would have known, herself an artist and lovely person. Their home was a feast of their talents where in addition to Bernice’s paintings and Ivor’s photos were his sculptures and several beautiful and intricately designed clocks. He was truly a polymath. Together they had 3 children, but one of Bernice’s most important offerings to Ivor was that of a kidney transplant, which enabled Ivor to come off dialysis and survive many happy years. Ivor and Bernice made a perfect couple until her sad loss 3 years ago. Concerning photography, I first met Ivor at a charity exhibition in Menora where he had some of his prints on show. Such was their quality I asked him if he had ever been in a camera club. The answer was no but he thought he might be interested. The rest followed, with his introduction and membership to FCC around 14 years ago. He has since been a major contributor to the club including as competition director for 7 years, a longstanding member of the committee and in 2017 receiving the President’s award for his huge contributions to the club. In turn, there is no doubt that the Camera Club along with the Fremantle Portrait Prize greatly enriched his life through the photographic experiences and companionship they provided. On the wider photographic landscape, he was recognised as an outstanding photographer and had an AAPS honour from the Australian Photographic Society. He was a Committee member of the WA Photographic Judges Association, a founding member of the Fremantle International Portrait Prize and a very active member of its committee. In 2012 Ivor received the Photographic Federation Prize for the Most Successful Exhibitor From WA, in the 27th Perth National Photographic Exhibition. Ivor’s photographs were exhibited with awards at numerous international competitions. This particularly chuffed him when our local club judges had rejected them. In fact the rare occasions when Ivor’s ire was visibly aroused was in response to the more recent approach to judging which he viewed as being equivalent to viewing the Mona Lisa with a microscope and scoring it on irrelevant minutiae. When Ivor Metlizky passed away, on Friday October 23rd 2020 Fremantle Camera Club lost one of its finest members and many of us lost a much loved friend and wonderful photographer. These are just a few personal notes about Ivor. There are at least three aspects of Ivor’s life: family, professional life and photography, all underpinned by his outstanding character; a warm, loving, gentle, personality, a great sense of humour, ethical and resolute in pursuing his objectives to the highest possible standards. Bernice