Your enthusiasm for LF is infectious…. A very engaging video with pace, insider information, and inspiration for newbies. If possible can you show the technical differences (side by side) of digital full frame and Large format? Also, it would be very interesting to see you going out on a shoot. If you could speak to us about what your imagining as you set up, how you will use the unique attributes of the LF format camera, and perhaps some footage from the darkroom.
Wonderful tour! Liked and subscribed 👍. What a contrast to 9 frames a second! I imagine that a camera like this forces one to be VERY deliberate and careful with every single aspect of making a photo. I’d be interested to see your gallery, and some of your BIG prints. Thanks again, Todd 😊
I liked the way you spliced your Washinton week with a studio based lesson on the Rolleiflex. It was touching to see the Memorial and then the photograph of it. You get the sense that the viewfinder well concentrates the gaze and if only one has the patience not to snap but keep looking, the shots will suggest themselves. Only today did I purchase from a Finnish company Kamerastore, a slightly older model: Rollei Rolleiflex Automat Model 4 (K4A). I am very excited. I have been using a mirrorless Sony Alpha for some years, but I don't feel any craft-based connexion. So that camera is paying for the analogue. I also own a small Sony RX100 and that I do use a lot. It is always with me. But I have accumulated several thousands of shots only I ever see, like Vivian Myer, you could say, but there is something not right. Years ago I learned to develop film in a dark room, had a Yashica Mat 24, and other cameras. I guess it is time to return to analogue, after so long. I am researching Paul Strand and other American photographers, especially Walker Evans and another book, you may know, Let Us Praise Famous Men (1942). He and James Agee collaborated on it. The book was also a retaliation against the 1937 You Have Seen Their Faces, by Margaret Bourke-White and Erskine Caldwell. Agee includes a very critical review of it in Let Us Praise Famous Men. None of them used Rolleiflexes, I guess. But I am responding to your point about Robert Frank and his The Americans. A critical gaze indeed. He had won a Googenheim scholarship thanks to Walker Evans, his mentor. Strand did a book with Zavattini, an Italian screenwriter and main theorist of Italian Neo-realism I have published books about. What is so interesting about thier book Un paese, translated into English and reprinted in 1997 by Aperture is the fact that Zavattini gently steers Strand away from his iconic art photography, and towards real people, instead of types. The text he wrote was actually the result of interviews with the people Strand photographed. So you have these outlandish mute Strand portraits, and the real people in their own words, given a chance to be themselves. So, intense research and unexpectedly this return to analogue and to contact prints and taking time to make photographs.
Absolutely first class and wonderful story telling , the pictures shown were very good indeed , excellent video, congratulations my friend on a fantastic piece of work !
Todd, people always have an issue with people spending money and perceived value. The way I see it, we work, we work hard to support ourselves and families. I turned 50 years old last year and went out and purchased my first Leica camera. Yes, it cost a lot, yes I had some people mock me for spending the money ' on a camera ' I don't, care, I work and and I want to enjoy life. Since owning my Leica camera, I have enjoyed photography more. When people say new gear doesn't make your photography better, I 100% disagree, I have gone out more and appreciated photography more since starting with my new Leica, Cheers from Australia, love your work.
Actually the Great Plains lay east of the Rocky Mountains, and are in fact in parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and then run south through the central United States, including Montana, North and South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, they don't stop at the Canadian border.
I love your photos and the approach. I am curious to know how you get in touch with your subjects and get them to agree to a photoshoot? I'd like to do similar, but this first crucial step can be a tricky one particularly with introverts like myself. Once I have a subject in front of my camera I'm comfortable and fine with getting the shot - it's just the first bit that is tougher!
I'm curious how you dated it to 1909. Is there a table of serial numbers somewhere on the net? I'd like to be able to date mine more accurately. It's listed in Gundlach catalogs until at least 1925. Yours must be a deluxe model of some sort as the others I've seen are chrome plated rather than the then brand-new stainless steel on yours. Great cleaning job, looks new!
Thanks for the channel. The tension created with the musical choice that accompanied the photographs really conveyed that "spooky" feeling for me. Great choice!
So cool - and what a great project to be hired to do! As much as I love photographing the exteriors of abandoned places, I hardly ever get inside, so I'm jealous! ;-) Cheers!
Yes they are great, but if you are just starting out in large format I would try a 4x5 before jumping into 8x10, and learning how a large format camera works and if you like the process. You just need a couple of trays to develop film.
Fantastic photos! I performed in that neighborhood many times (electronic music) and was always curious about that building. I need to go back and check it (and the neighborhood) out again. Also, the music you chose to go with the images was awesome! Who is that? Thanks, as always, for your cool work!
Thank you. Yes it's a great part of the city. Music by Eden Avery and Rayo Z. That's what I was going for, and underground electronic vibe that suited the place, and a music that you might here in a video installation at a modern art museum, thanks for noticing. Cheers
The sad thing about this neighborhood is that the revitalizing of that building prompted rents in the area to go up in a crazy way. There were many artists who were forced to move out of their studios because they could no longer afford rent.
@@paulstillwell yes for sure. I photographed a lot of those artists at the time very sad. I am all for having places for artists to create. Unfortunately across the country rents are now crazy, this country has become very hard to live in.
I got a chance to visit Tower Automotive while it was still empty and abandoned, I wish I had gotten more photos. Still need to check it out as the new museum!
