The Inner West Photographic Society was founded in 1999 as the result of a lot of organistion and hard work by Margaret Gilet who became the first club president. Logistical support was provided by Ray Papulis, who also built and donated the club’s display stands. Another founding member of note was Alex Revel, who served as Treasuer for many years. Sadly Alex passed away in late 2009, whereupon the then recently revamped Top Shot Competition was dedicated as the Alex Revel Top Shot Trophy.

To begin with the IWPS met at the Leichhardt RSL Club, sometimes just in the “quiet” end of the bar area. Unfortunately the Leichhardt RSL Club went broke within a year and Ray ended up having to make an evening dash to retrieve our equipment from the premises before the RSL club’s receiver took possession of it.

The IWPS moved on the Cyprus Club in Enmore for a while, in a meeting room later described as a basement dungeon, before moving again to a workshop in The Cresent Annandale where one of the then members had a theatrical makeup college. A church hall in Glebe was the next venue, which is remembered by members of that time mostly for being very cold in winter!

Finally, after negotiations over the latter half of 2003, in 2004 we arrived at the Wests Ashfield Leagues Club – where we were granted status as an Intra Club. In 2016 the Leagues Club underwent renovations so we were forced to look for a new venue once more and moved to our current home in Croydon.

Since the club’s inception it has staged a number of public exhibitions at various venues in the inner west and on occasion participated in the annual FCC sponsored Inter Club Competition. Since 2011 the club has also participated in an annual competition against the Cronulla Sharks Camera Club.