It is with great sadness that we report the passing away of Ray Brightman at the age of 91 on the 24th December 2025.
Ray was the longest serving member of Sheffield Photographic Society and we regarded him as the “father” of SPS. He first joined Sheffield PS in the 1950s and was in continuous membership and able to attend meetings until last year.
Ray has been President of the Society four times, in 1968-69, 1975-76, 1988-89, and 2000-01, and also a Past President of the Yorkshire Photographic Union (YPU) and was appointed as a Life Vice President of the YPU. He was on the YPU Lecturers List for over 25 Years and was a much sought after and well-travelled exhibition and competition judge – covering Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
He is one of a very small group of people who have been awarded the Hon PAGB by the Photographic Alliance Of Great Britain, known as the J S Lancaster Medal, for exceptional service to the PAGB and the YPU.
Ray was one of the early adopters of the audio visual medium in this country and was quickly recognised for the high quality of his work in that field. In the days of manual projection, he was a great exponent of the Purlock DuoFade dissolver, which was capable of snap changes and other effects impossible to achieve with the later bulb-dimming systems. Ray gained his FRPS in slide-sound sequences in 1973 and was soon appointed to the assessment panel for that distinction, a role which he held for many years. He was a committee member of the RPS Audio Visual Group, becoming its Chairman in the early 1980s.
Ray gained his FRPS in 1973 and has also been awarded the Fenton Medal by the Royal Photographic Society for major contributions to photography.
Many members will not know that Sheffield PS organised a National Slide Exhibition for 10 years from 1989 to 1998 and that Ray chaired the Organising Group for those Exhibitions, devoting a huge amount of time to the task of organising these very successful events.
In Sheffield PS itself Ray won nearly all of the Cups and Trophies in the various classes over the years including the Society Trophy for Best Print on 3 occasions and in former times the Trophy for the Best Slide in the Exhibition an amazing 9 times. In 2018 Sheffield PS awarded Ray a Certificate of Appreciation to recognise his achievements and his contribution and support to SPS over so many years.
In latter years Ray’s photographs of “Old Sheffield” have become a much loved feature of our Annual Exhibition. His collection of historical photos of Sheffield are now archived in the Ray Brightman Exhibition Collection on Sheffield Archives’ Picture Sheffield web site.
Ray was a long-time member of the Yorkshire Monochrome Group and attended the monthly meetings in Shipley until Covid intervened. He contributed to their exhibitions and the 25-year anniversary book. His monochrome images of old Sheffield were greatly appreciated there as well.
Ray was friendly and helpful to all at SPS and always ready to offer his experience and knowledge to other members. He will be sorely missed.