I’ve gone on a bit of a near end (I hope!) of Covid book buying binge as differentiated from the full blown Covid book buying binge I had a while back. I realized I had forgotten about getting some books I had long wanted and I also made some important new discoveries, care of the Internet. Beyond some obvious holes that had to be filled, I realized I needed to open the aperture beyond what I know about in general and move more beyond an American photographer-centric focus.

Newest books include those by these incredible photographers: Bill Brandt (UK), Don McCullum – two books (UK), Robert Doisneau (France) Sergio Larraine (Chile), Graciela Iturbide (Mexico), Josef Koudelka (Czechoslovakia/France), Fan Ho – three books (Hong Kong), William Klein – two books (US/France) and Carl Chiarenza (US).

If you live in the US and have focused primarily on American photographers, or haven’t ventured beyond your normal field of view, I encourage you to do some research and discover the many great photographers whose books would make an important addition to your library, provide you with inspiration, and contribute to your own photographic growth.

Stay well,

Michael

So after Photorama, Peter and I headed to the Allentown Museum of Art, about an hour and a half away, to see the double bill show of two great photographers living in my neck of the woods … Larry Fink and Judith Joy Ross. Timestamp … The Photographs of Larry Fink and Judith Joy Ross is a small and intimate show. The space devoted to both photographers could have easily been filled by the work of just one of them. Yet for those that have never seen either of their work this might be a good place to start.

The exhibit focuses on Fink’s photographs made on the streets of Harlem in the Sixties and Ross’s outdoor portraits made in the areas where she grew up, Weatherly and Hazelton Pennsylvania.

The work of the two photographers and how it is presented could not be more different! Fink’s photographs were made with a 35mm camera. Ross’s images were made with an 8 x 10 view camera on a tripod. Their choice of equipment and negative size notwithstanding, seeing both artist’s work side by side made me think about what goes into the print that will be displayed to the world … beyond that of the subject matter itself. Fink’s pictures were quite large; probably about 20 x 24 inches in size. All of Ross’ work were 8 x 10 contact prints except one pretty good sized enlargement.  Fink’s prints were made with an ink jet printer. Ross’ prints were made on gold toned printing-out-paper. Fink’s hybrid process prints looked like ink jet prints; the pictures resided on top of the paper’s surface. Ross’s prints had an incredible depth to them. Fink’s prints were much larger than necessary in my opinion, and didn’t force you to really study all that was going on in them. Ross’s prints were intimate studies that drew you in.

Ross’s one silver gelatin enlargement provided the opportunity to do an apples to apples comparison, and as far as I am concerned it wasn’t close in terms of emotional reaction. The Ross print made on silver gelatin paper just had so much more depth and feeling, as well as a real sense of immediacy to them. You’ll just have to visit the show to see if you agree!  In the end, while I was drawn more to the content of Fink’s outstanding work, I felt it was underserved by the presentation.  All of this having been said, Timestamp … The Photographs of Larry Fink and Judith Joy Ross is a fine show and well worth the visit!

An added bonus to the show was the opportunity to meet its curator Leah Frances who happens to be a wonderful photographer … I checked out her website when I got home! See her work at www.leah-frances.com.  We had a nice chat and I look forward to further conversations.

Stay well,

Michael

On Sunday I joined my friend and Monalog Collective co-member Peter Schrager for an action packed photographic road in Pennsylvania.  Our first stop was at the Best Western Plus Hotel in Bensalem, PA, about a half hour or so from where I live. We had discussed finding a date to see the Larry Fink/Judith Joy Ross double bill show at the Allentown Museum of Art and Peter mentioned his plans to drive down from Connecticut to go to Photorama USA at its Pennsylvania stop.  I love camera shows and hadn’t been to one since before the pandemic, so needless to say I was excited to go!!! We quickly set a date when we could do our road trip double header!!

We arrived at the Best Western in the morning just as things were getting underway in the morning and walked in. It looked like things were pretty much the same as the last time.  The show organizer and some of the dealers recognized me which was nice, and at first glance things pretty much looked the same … lots of stuff scattered with no rhyme or reason on lots of tables.

But it really wasn’t the same.  Almost everything was analog!!!!  From cameras (35mm, medium format and large format) to accessories, to film, and darkroom tidbits. We even checked out a stash of darkroom items in the trunk of someone’s car in the parking lot. But beyond the fact that there was hardly any digitalia to be found, prices had gone up dramatically for most of the used cameras you could previously pick up for a song. And much of what I saw was in “user” condition! Most shocking of all were the prices for medium format cameras such as Hasselblad, Mamiya 7, Rollei, etc. Sky high, e.g., $3500 for a user Mamiya 7 (not eve 7IIA!) and 80mm lens!

I didn’t spend anything except the fin to get in … I couldn’t afford to … but I had a lot of fun just looking at all the neat gear and talking to the dealers. Back in the car and driving to Allentown I thought about what was going on here. Look, the guys sitting behind the tables were there for one reason only – to make money!  So they brought stuff to sell they knew had the best chance to be bought. To me what was at the show and what was not, along the high prices was yet another set of signs that film is back!!!!

Yeah baby!!!

Stay well,

Michael

Last Monday I moderated and was a member of an Artist Panel of Monalog Collective members at Penn State Lehigh Valley University, as part of the programing surrounding our show. Ann Lalik, the gallery’s Director and Arts Coordinator was going to moderate the event but came down with Covid at the last minute. Rather than cancel we agreed the show must go on! And I’m glad it did!

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of my dual role, mainly because of the student attendees. Two good sized art classes came, along with a number of professors and outside guests, but it was the students that asked the most interesting questions and made some of the most important observations! You never know how these things are going to go, but we went well past the scheduled time allotted and even after that, a number of students hung around to chat with us.

Even though none of the students were film photographers – in fact many were not photographers at all – they were fascinated by what they heard and the pictures they saw in the Ronald K. Delong Gallery. This along with many other things encourage me about the continued importance and future of analog black and white photography. Film photography is unlikely to reclaim its place as the capture method of choice, but if the young remain as interested as they are in its efficacy, and especially the efficacy of black and white, then the materials we love so much will be available for a long time!

Part of the Monalog mission is to engage with others, individually and through collaborative activity. I look forward to the opportunity to continue to interact, mentor and work with young people that are photographing or just interested in the art of black and white analog photography.

Stay well,

Michael

Making pictures and eating … together? If there are two things I love its photography and macaroni and cheese. So how could I bring together my avocation and what I consider to be an entire food group? Go to the Bloomsburg Fair Mac & Cheese Festival in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. I recently found out about this and thought it could be a great photo op for my work towards the Monalog Collective’s “Visions of America” project I’ve previously written about. Not bad … make some pictures, try 10 mac and cheese samples, check out the Biergarten, and get a souvenir glass. Worth the $25 price of admission for sure. About two hours from my house, this confluence of art and gastronomic delight would neatly fit within my two hour plan rules … I’ve written about that too. Is this great or what!!! Well, that was the plan.

The problem is that sometimes plans or best intentions don’t work out for any number of reasons. In this case, I had one of my occasional bouts with benign vertigo. What is benign vertigo you ask? According to the Internet it’s a condition that exists when tiny “canalith particles (otoconia) break loose and fall into the wrong part of the semicircular canals of the inner ear.” It’s a little disconcerting when you get out of bed and the room starts spinning around or when you happen to fall down for no particular reason.

This situation was going on for a few days, but I had got an appointment with a therapist on Saturday morning. Perfect. She would put me through some positional changes designed to shift the pesky little particles back to where they belonged and I would be quickly on my way!  The car was packed and I thought I would leave directly from her office and drive the roughly 100 miles to cheesy heaven.

Turned out to be a little more severe then expected. While going through the positioning motions things started to spin really, really fast. Warp factor 8, but hey, no problem. Getting ready to leave she told me that I might feel a bit off, tired, dizzy or just not myself for 24 hours. In other words and it might be best not to go. Right. Got in my car and started to drive. Ok, I didn’t feel so great and pulled over a few minutes later until things felt a little more normal. Feeling a little better I figured I’d start driving again. All’s well until about two minutes down the road when what I’m seeing appears to be coming towards me then racing back to where it was. Not good.

Yeah, I hate when someone is right and I can’t do what I want #@!$%^. I pulled over, collected myself and drove home at a moderate speed. When I arrived, my wife was happy to see me. She agreed with the therapist which meant she was right too. Damn! What to do? Get into bed and zone out for three hours or so. When I woke up I felt a lot better. Problem was that I had missed the opportunity to get to the festival.

I felt bad, and the $25 ticket was the least of it. Missing out on all that gooiness, what might have been some great photo opportunities and the experience I would have had making those pictures. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I think about pictures I hope to make. I actually see them in my head. Sort of my own version of “previsualization”! In this case I was thinking about the people I would encounter for the last couple of days, what they might look like and pictures I would make. Oh well, didn’t happen.

As in life, there is often disappointment in photography. Either, the light isn’t right, what you expected turns out to be a nothing, your compositions stink, there’s something wrong with the negative, or something comes up that causes you not to be able to go. It’s easy to feel sorry for yourself over a lot of important and unimportant things, like missing a Mac & Cheese Festival, and use that as an excuse to get down on yourself, or worse yet to stop what you’re doing. Don’t do that!

So what am I going to do? I took it easy for the rest of the weekend, just like the therapist and my wife recommended. Now I’m refreshed, ready to make some good pictures and catch up on my darkroom backlog.

And maybe I can talk my wife into making some Mac & Cheese this week.

Stay well,

Michael

About a year and a half ago I wrote about my acquisition of Leitz Focomat IC and 2C enlargers. That’s right … the holy grails baby! Right? I wrote about this in an entry entitled My Darkroom … Opportunity or Excess? A lot more time than expected has gone by, but I thought it would be entertaining to bring you up to speed on where I am regarding these two babies. Here is part of what I wrote before:

“I now have sitting in my darkroom what many consider the King (2C) and at a minimum, the Crown Prince (1C) of enlargers … the Leicas of enlargers!  And of course, no diffusion color heads and none of the convenience I love so much!  And yeah, my mighty Devere is still here (with diffusion color head) and it’s not going anywhere thank you.

So what the $%^$&^@? Is this opportunity or complete and foolish excess?  I have to go out and buy some damn VC filters for starters! I’ve never spoken about darkroom GAS before and had never experienced it. Was I now? To be completely honest, I don’t know. Even worse was this just another Covid-19 purchase like so many people have made?  Or was I falling under a magic spell cast by elves from Wetzlar past?  It’s known that many have succumbed to their hypnotic siren calls … myself included. Could I resist their charms now?

So now I feel I need to write about this, to express myself, even if none of the answers exist yet. Will the truth finally emerge?  I eagerly await and I stand ready to be judged.

In the meantime it’s going to take a little time to sort things out. I can see that I will probably need to extend my enlarging table to handle three heavy beasts, and I need to get a few missing parts and another Zone VI timer (none of which grow on trees).  I’ll let you know how it goes … but if anyone has any thoughts I’d love to hear from you!”

Shortly thereafter I wrote an entry called The Focomats are Making Their Presence Known … Am I Going Down the Rabbit Hole? Here’s part of what I said:

“Now for the really fun part, getting a few missing pieces and figuring how to use these beasts as they were meant to be used. I finally managed to get instruction booklets for each enlarger, but of course they are for older models and don’t provide the most “how to”. I think the IC will be more straightforward and I found an interesting YouTube video on the 2C. Unfortunately the person while looking very knowledgeable is speaking Chinese. I am sure it would have been helpful but $#%@^&*!  Then, I couldn’t get the housing that holds the 60mm and 100mm lenses to shift positions for use; the mechanism was jammed. Again #@$%^$#@%.  After taking things apart I found that a tiny, tiny, cylindrical bearing was jammed and one was missing.  Yet another $%#^%$^ moment!  I needed my neighbor’s help again. Without his help the remaining bearings would certainly fall out and scatter to who knows where (well a few did, but I was lucky to track them down).

Only those pesky Wetzlar elves could have designed such a thing (they had a reason for everything they did, didn’t they?), and even though I was able get things working again sans the missing bearing, deep down I knew it might not be right. I mean it seems to be working, but it’s not Leitz ultimate perfection, is it.

That damn tiny part is on my mind. Perhaps I am losing all sense of reality because I have begun to see if I can locate or fabricate one if necessary @#$%^&!

I’m also beginning my hunt for the missing negative masks I will need, but think I might have a line on some new ones if necessary from Kienzle in Germany.  And then there are two tiny knurled screws to hold a light bulb socket in place to illuminate the enlargement indicator scale and the red filter that goes underneath the lens.  Why not be a completest? After all, this is a Leica isn’t it? Kienzle is known for supporting these wacky things as well as making their own fine autofocus enlargers. I have communicated with them and we will see that they have to say.

I know it’s all worth it, right … or am I beginning to slowly lose my mind?  Someday I hope to know.”

Ok, let’s fast forward shall we?

Well, I finally contacted Kienzle. There weren’t any issues with the 1C, but I needed a number of parts for its bigger brother. And of course I needed to get the VC filters.  No problem except trying to communicate with Kienzle concerning the damn tiny, tiny, cylindrical bearings and one or two other little parts which I can’t remember what they were for.  They had to scavenged from other enlargers and their cost reflected that %$^&@$! The other parts I needed were manufactured by Kienzle … the under the lens red filter and the negative masks for 35mm, 2 ¼, 6×7 and 6×9. OK, I just wanted to be prepared or be a completist.

All the parts arrived and I was finally able to get everything installed. Then I got diverted by a few things that can happen when you work and have about twenty other things going on in your life like running a photographic collective. No problem, I finally got back to the enlargers only to realize that the autofocus system in the 2C was shall we say, not focusing as it should #@$%^! I had manuals for both enlargers and was able to figure out how to get the IC to focus and stay that way as you raised or lowered the enlarging head. The 2C wasn’t so simple and the Leitz manual was fairly useless. It was easy to figure out as with the IC, that by adjusting the focusing helical the lenses were screwed into that you could focus them for a given height. The problem was moving the head up and down. Solving this mystery turned out to be a bit of a process. First I remembered that a new friend of mine in the UK had a 2C. Surely he could be of help. After a Zoom session we figured out that a small knob on the right side of the enlarger was disengaged. Nowhere could I find any mention of this part! Because it was disengaged, the cams on the left side of the enlarger that control focus as you move the enlarger head up or down were not fully engaged. For now I only care about focusing with the 100mm lens, as my 35mm work will be handled by the 1C. Eventually I will get to the 60mm lens but I can only take so much drama at one time! The so-called “dolphin” shaped cam that works with the 100mm lens (yes it is shaped like a dolphin!) wasn’t fully engaged. Now it is!!! Thanks Gary!!!

Ok, baby steps. Still not there yet. I had to start scouring the Internet for clues. First, I found a thread that discussed this problem. Thankfully it was in English! I read and reread it but couldn’t fully make sense of it. Then I found a manual put together be a user that was so much better than anything Leitz published. Unfortunately it was written in German. No problem …Google Translate to the rescue … sort of. Then I located a site that discussed my problem in Japanese. Got that translated too. The trouble with machine translation is that it’s not perfect so you have to do the best you can. In any case, with all three documents in hand … well actually on my laptop … I went downstairs to my darkroom and was able to make some sense of things. Success was achieved after some fiddling around with the dolphin shaped cam and its fine tuning gizmo that could only be accessed by first loosening the cam’s three large screws and then moving the head up and down to make it accessible for adjustment with the tiniest of jeweler’s screw drivers.

A couple of hours later and it seemed to work! Then the next day I decided to do it over because I felt the lens helical was unscrewed too much. I fixed this by changing the setting of the vertical adjustment ring at the bottom of the enlarger column to where it should have been in the first place based on the height of my easel. Then I put a couple of drops of oil in all of the marked lubrication holes in both enlargers. Finally I windexed the 2C’s glass negative carrier.

I think I’ve almost made it to the finish line. Now, all I have to do is make some prints and see if it was worth all the effort! I’ll let you know how it goes.

Oh, and by the way … my 2C now goes by the name Flipper (for those of you old enough to remember, otherwise look it up on the net).

Stay well,

Michael

When I have some extra time I like to scan the Internet for items of photographic interest. Once I weed my way through the chaff and misinformation I occasionally learn some things and can even be entertained. Sometimes I stumble across some tidbit that reaffirms my own thinking and lets me know I’m not alone.

Here’s something I found that hits the nail on the head concerning large prints of mediocre work. I know, I’ve talked about this problem a number of times here, and have even shown this once before, but I liked this so much I couldn’t help myself and just had to show it again along with another quote that together hopefully make a point. Georges Fevre, HCB’s printer, used to say “If you can’t make them good, then make them big”. Damn that’s good and how true!! Doesn’t matter about technical quality, print quality, larger negative size or anything else. Crappy, boring large images will never be good, despite what the powers that be want you to think.

And here’s something else. I’ve quoted this before too, but it is so good I want to show it again. And why not? It’s my blog after all! Like the previous quote, it touches on something I’ve written about before … photography as a journey and what’s really important to me in my photographic life …  the love of the work … and the experience to be lived. It comes from Daniel Milnor and his great website Shifter … “What did I do with this work? Nothing. Where was it published? Nowhere. For those of you who don’t know me you need to understand how selfish I am. My primary reason for making pictures is to live the experience of making them. This is a greedy, solitary pursuit. My second reason is to record. Data. Visual data. Record it, preserve it, move on, and hopefully have it utilized for historical purposes sometime long after I’m dead. Lastly, I don’t care about being known as a photographer, or building an audience, or selling shit. I’m in heaven simply by being there, talking with people, attempting to understand their course through the obstacle course of life, and from time to time, hearing the occasional thump of the Blad’s shutter.”

I include this great quote from Milnor as I think it fits nicely with the first one about image size and junk pictures. Look, there’s a lot of folks in the photo art world that are so obsessed with exhibiting and selling their pictures even if the content is suspect at best that they’ll print them supersize. And why not?  It will be promoted as “new” like repackaged detergent, and the gullible and naïve will think it’s great and buy it.

Ok, what about you? Think about what is really important in your photographic life and be true to yourself. Make your picture, and make your statement about what is important you … what you really care about. Your work will stand on its own and won’t need to be blown up to be any good. And while you’re at it, and most important of all, just enjoy the journey that can be yours in your photographic life.

Stay well,

Michael