Category Archives: history

a photograph to remember

Posted on June 20, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. The other night, my wife and I were watching an old 1933 movie featuring James Cagney called, “Picture Snatcher“. The flick was about a NYC hoodlum who wanted to go straight by being a reporter. He was hired by … Continue reading →

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hooray for the old B and J

Posted on June 19, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. If you believe this old advertisement from August 1943’s Popular Photography magazine, familiar scenes and family snaps were doubly welcomed by America’s fighting men when taken with a 4×5 B&J press camera or were enlarged with a B&J Solar … Continue reading →

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nothin’ but blue skies

Posted on June 18, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Aerial cameras made many images for maps and other critical analysis functions. This camera was manufactured by a company founded in 1927 as the Fairchild Camera and Instrument company. After WW2, when transistors began to take on the functions … Continue reading →

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weegee the famous

Posted on June 17, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Anyone out there who hasn’t heard of Weegee? Arthur Fellig and his trusty Speed Graphic haunted the streets of New York City mid last Century. He was busy beating cops and firemen to the scene and taking newspaper shots … Continue reading →

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which twin has the Toni …

Posted on June 16, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Late last century was the hey-day for camera and image collecting. Bargains abounded. New books were published. Old books once destined for garbage became valuable items. Advertisements and other ephemera took on a pricier existence. Old, dusty publications were … Continue reading →

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look, ma – no hands …

Posted on June 15, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if a zoom lens was invented with the zoom controlled by electricity? Smartphone could off these tiny marvels and a light finger motion could shift the tiny zoom lens’s focal length. PHSC member and friend … Continue reading →

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the summer of ’44

Posted on June 14, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. WW2 was winding down the summer of 1944 and would end in Allied victory the following spring/summer. Graflex gave a novel twist to the war effort and the American fighting men suggesting the average American was Part-Owner of cameras … Continue reading →

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a boatload of testosterone

Posted on June 13, 2021 by Robert

Toronto.  Our past president and friend Les Jones sent me this interesting photograph from the Rare Historical Photos website showing American troops arriving home on the Queen Elizabeth. Les is both a sports photographer and an author. I had an … Continue reading →

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mille feuille

Posted on June 9, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. In the spring of 1944, it seemed as if everyone wanted to make photographic paper, especially the fast variety suitable for enlarging (slower contact paper worked but took minutes of exposure, not seconds). In the 1950s, only the larger … Continue reading →

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a sharper kind of light

Posted on June 7, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Photography demands light, but so do other optical devices such as light microscopes. The resolution limit of light microscopes has usually been the light itself, forcing a transition to other devices such as an electron microscope if increased resolution … Continue reading →

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