IAN BOCK
The MCC Board announced the passing of Ian Bock, on Thursday 19 February 2026.
Ian’s Background by Jim Weatherill
Ian was born in Trentham, Victoria in 1933. In 1936 his family moved to Fiji where his father worked as a missionary for the Methodist Church for 10 years.
Return to Victoria, Ian lived in Camperdown for the next 4 years, and then his family move to Coburg and Ian attended University High School where he matriculated. He attended the University of Melbourne graduating in 1954 from the 4 year Chemical Engineering degree course.
He then worked for the next 36 years with Monsanto, in areas such as process investigation, plant supervisor and financial modelling and project evaluation.
As a child Ian was always keen on drawing and painting, however on his 14th birthday he was given a box camera. His father taught him how to process a film and make a contact print on the kitchen table, with the kitchen blacked out.
Ian was fascinated by the medium, and started experimenting – some of his early experiments involved using yellow cellophane to replica a filter and improve the quality of the sky in his early black and white photographs.
As a present for completing Matriculation and for Christmas his parent gave him a Zeiss Netter medium format, roll film camera. This was followed by a Ricoh Twin Lens Reflex in 1954, and then Ian made a special purchase, a second hand Rolleiflex for L94, obtained by trading in two camera, plus using all his savings. Ian is still a keen collector of cameras and a member of the Australian Photographic Collector’s Society Inc.
Ian’s association with the camera clubs movement goes back to 1956 when he joined the Preston Camera Club; he remained a member for about ten years. This was followed by a couple of years with the Southern Suburbs Photographic Society, and a further 2 years at the Camberwell Camera Club, when Wilf Broadhead was President. Ian has now been a member of the Melbourne Camera Club for just over 40 years.
Ian has always displayed a strong desire to help people, and combined with his strong interest in photography and an obvious a capacity to take interesting photographs, he did well in competitions and soon became in demand as a speaker, judge and workshop presenter throughout Victoria.
It was quite common for Ian to receive 40 to 50 requests in a year to address different camera clubs and other groups. To keep up this level of involvement and commitment to the photographic movement in Victoria involved much time, travel and personal expense.
Ian joined the Australian Photographic Society (APS) in 1967, and has been an active member ever since. He was also a member, and played a leading role in the Australian Postal Portfolio Society (APPS). Both APS and APPS did much to bring photography to country people throughout Australia.
Ian’s scientific mind has lead him to investigate and master many different facets of photography. His photographs of highly magnified crystals opened a new world of macro photography to many keen amateur. And following a workshop in Ballina in 1976, he developed a system using register pins and investigate and then introduced many other s to posterisation, tone drop out and image insertion. This was way before digital has popularised these techniques .Over the years Ian commitment to amateur photography and the camera club movement has been second to none. He has been a tireless worker, and his enthusiasm for photography is infectious.
Ian’s two rules of photography are frequently quoted by many through Victoria and Australia. “Rule 1 – Photography is Fun, and Rule 2 There are no other rules”.
In addition to the service Ian has given camera clubs and the photographic movement, and has held numerous official positions including.
Ian became a Board Member/Director of the Melbourne Camera Club in 1967/68 and has served on the board ever since. He has been President 8 times, treasurer 10 times and also held the position of Vice President.
He has been Melbourne Camera Club delegate to the Victorian Association of Photographic Societies (VAPS) for any years, and served on the VAPS committee for a total of 15 years including President for 2 years, and Treasurer for 4/5 years.
His involvement with the APS includes being a mentor for new members, and serving on two APS Convention Planning Committees, for the Geelong APSCON 1993 and Shepparton APSCON 2001.
And he also acted as Editor of the APPS newsletter for 12 years, only giving up the role last year (2006).
As well as regularly being invited to judge at club evening, as part of his 40/50 nights out a year speaking at camera clubs he has judged at National Exhibitions and Victoria’s only International Exhibition – VIGEX.
Ian has been keen on introduce and share the joy and excitement of photography with others, and has been heavily involved with the Melbourne Camera Club’s biannual Introductory Course to Photography for many years.
He has also use his photography as a positive tool in his strong association with his local church, and the Melbourne PC Users Club.
Ian’s contribution to photography has been recognised by the Melbourne Camera Club where he as been made a Life Member.
He has also been awarded the State Service Medal by both the VAPS and the APS.
Jim Weatherill
26 November 2007
Ian Bock OAM
Australia Day Honours 2014 – read more
Tributes in Memory of Ian Bock
Following the passing of MCC Life Member and our good friend Ian Bock, we invite you to share a short tribute, memory, or reflection to honour Ian’s contribution to MCC and the wider photographic community. Photos also welcome. The tributes will be published on the MCC website and will be shared with the Bock family.
Please forward to: secretary@melbournecameraclub.org.au
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