Well let’s get started! In 10^th place … David Plowden.

David Plowden is a critically important American photographer, especially for someone like me who isn’t a big fan of the times we live in.  As I am getting older I often think about what America was like before it became the mostly homogenized plastic place it has become. Growing up in the 1950s and 60s there seemed to be so much more character, from architecture, to cars to just about everything. Cameras were made out of metal or wood, not polycarbonate or plastic. For over fifty years Plowden focused his cameras on America’s heartland, its farms, barns and prairies, bridges, steam trains, large ships that travelled the Great Lakes, urban areas and small towns, interiors of buildings, steel plants, and that which has been abandoned, capturing important images before so much or our nation’s heritage and the artifacts that are part of it vanished for good.

He has called himself an “an archeologist with a camera” who has spent his life “one step ahead of the wrecking ball” and I think this is an accurate description. Some have compared his work to that of the great WPA photographers though many of his pictures are devoid of people. Stark and often haunting images, they are incredibly serene and beautiful.

Plowden has published over twenty books, several of which I own. One of them, Imprints, is especially special to me. It’s signed by the artist and has a beautiful inscription to me.  I still remember the night well. I drove up from Virginia to Towson University near Baltimore to see the opening of Plowden’s exhibit and hopefully to get a chance to meet the photographer himself.  I brought my copy of the book with me with the off chance notion that not only would I get to speak with him, but maybe he would be kind enough to sign it.  All’s well that ends well … I had a long chat with David, and he could not have been nicer! I even had a few very helpful follow up phone calls with him.

Plowden’s craft is impeccable and his work is visually stunning.  All of the books I have are well worth owning, but you can start out with the aforementioned Imprints, which is a beautiful retrospective of his work up to 1997 when it was published.

I like to sit down in my big comfortable leather chair when I have a lot of time to think and dream about what was, instead of where we seem to be headed.  That’s when I can be found looking at David Plowden’s wonderful work.

Stay safe,

Michael

A great pastime for those who surf the net is to check out what’s the best or what’s the top 10 of whatever, from peanut butter to sports cars. And truth be told, I occasionally do this myself. So why not throw my hat into the ring with a list of my very own!

You know you want it. You know you need it.  Surely Mankind has been waiting … but is it truly ready?

Here’s my plan … to provide you with a very subjective list and discussion on my “favorite” top 10 black and white analog photographers.  Black and white analog, because that’s my interest and it’s what this website is about … and I’m in charge of this microscopic corner of the Internet universe. “Favorite”, because this is incredibly subjective and it cannot be otherwise … and finally, it’s my list! Their pictures speaks to me … they may not to you. And there may be some other very subjective reasons for my choices.  We’ll see how it goes.

I’ll tell you why I think they’re wonderful and why I think you should know about them!  I will also throw an example of one of their books to head you in the right direction!  Look, they may not be your favorites or what you consider the top 10. And of course there might me many others that are out there that I might have liked even more if I only knew they existed. So why wouldn’t I know about them? Because I haven’t seen every photographer’s photographs in person or in published form, and then there are those that purely photograph for the love of it and we never see their work at all. Vivian Meir would have been a prime example of this, were she not discovered by pure accident!  I wrote about her and the great photography we will never see several years ago if you want to check that out.

So stay tuned and I hope you will enjoy reading these periodic entries as much as I will enjoy writing them.

Stay safe,

Michael

I’ve made a good amount of pictures and managed few keepers during Covid, but not nearly enough. Nevertheless the time I spent photographing during this difficult period was incredibly worthwhile. Even though the virus made it prohibitive to take many of the pictures I like to make, what mattered, and what I’ve always loved about photography is the journey.  Everything about being out there is special to me, and if fortune is on my side, just maybe a meaningful picture will be captured during a memorable day.

Last week I wrote about Fred Picker’s Zone VI Newsletters and it seems they’re still fresh in my mind. Something he said so beautifully really struck a chord.

“Of the numerous aspects of the photographic experience there is only one that I find always wonderful, exciting, and capable of producing instant happiness.  The best part of photography isn’t talking about it or writing about it or teaching it or developing film or hanging shows or publishing books or making prints.  It isn’t selling prints or having your work admired. It’s the excitement of being out there: the anticipation of the unknowable wonder that may appear over the next hill. It is the knowledge that there is a chance of finding and recording a metaphor of your loves, your dreams, your past, and what you may feel about your future. It is the hope of searching out for yourself and your camera something incredible.” Zone VI Newsletter 47, p.10.

The rules that have governed our coming and going for almost a year and a half are now being changed as we move back to a more normal life. Today, still being a bit careful, I am going to photograph the Doylestown’s Memorial Day Parade and the very moving memorial service that always follows it at Doylestown Cemetery. It will be the 153^rdanniversary of this wonderful tradition and I’m excited to be a part of it! Not because I know I will make some great photographs, but because I will be out there experiencing something that is truly wonderful. And during that experience there is a chance that I and my camera will find “something incredible”!

Happy Memorial Day, stay safe, and best wishes for a better time ahead,

Michael

Ok, you have walked to the edge of the cliff, stood at the precipice and … jumped off!

I know this is hard. Been there done it many times.  It’s simple … you need to be true to yourself. Are you going to push yourself to produce the best you can and strive to become better? Or produce something that’s good enough?  Or worse yet, let mediocre work slide because you just don’t feel like investing anymore time?

I hate it when someone shows me a work print, or says they know their finished print needs a little more burning or dodging, or the contrast isn’t just right.  If you care at all then do the best you can! If you can make the print better do it!  If it’s a clunker forget about it and move on!

Yes, I know how painful it is, but I have no choice when there’s no alternative.  None of us who really care do. After all, this is about you as a creator of art … as a person that can look in the mirror and honestly judge who you are, and what you want to be. In the end this is about your soul … as a photographer …  as a person.

Stay safe,

Michael

This is where the rubber meets the road!

Evaluating the print is perhaps the most important step next to actually making the photograph in the first place! Let’s face it, you have done a lot, spent a lot of time and, frankly a lot of money to get this far, and you are so, so, close. Now is your chance not to blow the whole damn thing.

Study the results of all your hard work. How? As I’ve discussed before, I place my prints on a strip of wood attached to the wall in my workroom and look at them long and hard under the same lighting I use in my darkroom to examine prints. Why look at them long and hard? If all is well then GREAT! But it’s quite possible they may not deserve to be seen … in their present form … or at all!

Now read that last sentence again, because it can be a difficult thing to accept.

I have written about this several times over the years, but it’s worth mentioning a few things I’ve said before.

The wooden strip is wonderful tool that can help you determine whether the print you made was a statement of what you saw in your minds eye and deserving, or whether it needs more work or isn’t very good after all. If the print does not capture what you meant to say or is disappointing for some technical or other aesthetic reason, that’s what the garbage can is for!  On this, John Sexton said, “I find the single most valuable tool in the darkroom is my trash can – that’s where most of my prints end up.”

Ansel Adams said, “Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.”  Think about that for a moment.  He made thousands of images most of us would die for, yet very few made the cut.  I’m not Adams so I have to be pretty ruthless … and so do you.

Paper and chemicals are expensive and your time is valuable.  A box of one hundred 8X10 sheets of Ilford Warmtone Variable Contrast paper alone is currently going for $160!  Think about how much you have spent just to get to this point. But settling for an also ran after spending so much money and time is the worst thing of all! It’s also costly to the long-term growth of your work .

So what to do? Take a deep breath and toss it; then think about My Step 17!

I promise it will be all right.

Stay safe,

Michael

Last weekend I drove to Gettysburg to photograph. The excuse was Tillman Crane’s photo retreat and to see some of my Monalog colleagues that were going to be there. So if nothing else, I could say hello and do a little catching up in a socially distanced manner. I had not been back to Gettysburg since the obligatory middle school field trip with my son that everyone within several hundred miles makes. It had been around twenty years and to be honest I didn’t remember very much of the details.

I packed up my Plaubel Makina and left early Saturday morning.  Two and a half hours later I arrived without a hitch. To make a long story short despite the virus there were a lot of people throughout the park, much of them without masks. After driving to several of the monument locations and dodging the Covid deniers, I just could not get much of a feeling for what might excite me.  So what to do?  I could easily bag it or try to make something more of my outing.

Look, there is no shame in coming home empty. I’ve done it plenty of times.  But since we were talking about five hours of driving, why not try as hard as I could to find some good pictures to make and maybe something else.  So I worked hard to find a couple of opportunities in the park and then drove into the small town of Gettysburg to see what was there. What I found were even more people. A lot of field trips and families. And again, many without masks. It was beginning to seem that the itch wasn’t worth much of the scratch, but after driving around town a few more times I found a couple of things that looked promising.  After a few hours I finished a roll of 120 Tri-X film. There are actually one or two pictures I am looking forward to seeing once the film is developed and I’ve made a proof sheet. As always I remain hopeful!

Seeing my friends for a few minutes in the lobby of the local Best Western was a treat and a real bonus, but could I do more to make this outing truly worthwhile?  Time permitting I had been thinking of making a detour on the way home to stop at Baldwin’s Book Barn in West Chester, Pennsylvania. I’ve always wanted to visit this place as it’s pretty well known, but hadn’t ever made the trip from Doylestown.  Today, as things would have it, time was permitting!

The Book Barn was built in 1822. The five-story building is packed with 300,000 used books, manuscripts, and maps as well as paintings, prints, estate antiques, and other collectibles.  If you are a used bookstore junky like me you definitely need to check this place out! It’s amazing and within a short amount of time I had become lost several times looking through all the nooks and crannies. I finally found the photography section. A few books were interesting, but not enough for me to buy. Not to be deterred, I kept looking around and stumbled onto the section titled “Artists”. There stuffed on a shelf I found a beautiful first edition of the two volume Daybooks by Edward Weston. Yes, I have the Aperture softcover reissue that combines both volumes into one fat paperback, but truth be told I had never took the time to really read them. Maybe it was the paperback format this didn’t provided the dignity the Daybooks deserved. Needless to say I had to have these two books!  I am reading them now and there is no comparison between the original hard covers and the later soft cover edition. The books are larger, the paper is better and the reproductions of the photographs are nicer!

Left the Book Barn with a smile on my face and made it home in time for diner with my lovely wife.

Not a bad way to finish off a pretty good day!

Stay safe,

Michael