forgotten photographers

Posted on March 21, 2023 by Robert

Retrospective exhibit by Neil Newton

Toronto. Like many callings, occupations, etc., the majority of photographers live a quiet life and are soon forgotten in the dimness of time. I think of Red Favero in Barrie or Bud Mitchell in Midland, just two the many who are not particularly known outside their communities.

Few photographers like our late editor Bob Lansdale have the presence of mind to donate their negatives to archives. Bob did this with his U of T work, donating the images to the university’s archives where they will  live beyond him in future publications.

An email from George Dunbar along with his copy of a Canadian Statesman (Bowmanville) newspaper article from June 29, 1976 on Neil Newton’s catalogue from his ‘Retrospective’ exhibit at ‘The Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa’ sparked my memory.  Neil has many prestigious awards and clients from his time in photography. I met Neil decades ago and bought one of his 1978  ‘Retrospective‘ catalogues. Small world!

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a baleful eye on historic events

Posted on March 20, 2023 by Robert

Train wreck summer of 1959 at Washago when two passenger trains collided head-on

Toronto. Not long after its invention, photography and photographers recorded exotic landscapes, famous people, disasters, wrecks, wars, etc.  Before the evolution of such photographs, we relied on wood cuts, steel cuts, and the written word to describe events near and far.

War benefitted from photographers. They roamed the battlegrounds with only a camera and recorded stills and later movies too that resonated with those at home. Wrecks such as this train wreck at Washago, Ontario in 1959 would be forgotten in the mists of time if not recorded by photography. Some times the photographer was famous, or became famous.

Other times – like in this case – the photographer chose to keep his efforts hidden to all but family. A freight train headed south for Toronto was waylayed in a siding to let a busy passenger train pass. A few miles down the track at Washago the passenger train crashed head-on with a second train headed north. The engine crew in the south bound train were killed instantly.

The freight train that would have crashed, but for the directive to pull into a siding to let the ill-fated passenger train pass, went by unscathed after the line was cleared and restored. The freight engineer was my grandfather …

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… and everything nice …

Posted on March 19, 2023 by Robert

My first good 35mm camera (bought new but found two decades later to be terminally ill). The camera, an Exakta VXIIa, became my first collectible …

Toronto. From the earliest days of photography to the invention of dry plates, shutter speeds were unnecessary – the media were far far too slow. A simple hat or lens cap (and verbal counting) served as a shutter. As to ‘shutters’ all was sugar and spice …

With dry plates, a shutter became necessary since for the first time under daylight a glass plate had sub-second sensitivity. The shutters could be set to ‘I’ for instantaneous (about a 15th of a second) or ‘T’ for time (some times shown as ‘Z’ – time in German –  or as ‘B’ for bulb) as a nod to the older media.

Various mechanical shutters evolved mounted on or in the lens (leaf shutters). Springs or gears could vary the speed of  the leaf rotation to set shutter speeds. Then the shutter was moved to the film plane, was made larger, and used a variable width between two light tight curtains, or two parts of a single curtain. Various springs and gear trains could slow down the second curtain to vary the gap (or the curtain could be wound to set the various fixed length gaps).

As media sensitivity improved, more elaborate shutters were concocted to allow various sub second speeds to be set. This became critical when the minicam era began around the late 1920s. Some cameras relied on leaf shutters while other varieties used focal plane shutters – complexity grew as the pre 1870s media drifted into history.

Note: The title of this post is a piece of an early (about 1820) nursery rhyme called, “What Are Little Boys Made Of?“.

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George finds more on George

Posted on March 18, 2023 by Robert

Photographer George Hunter by Simon Bell

Toronto. One of the more illustrious of our speakers and members was the late George Hunter. My good friend George Dunbar found this article written by Jodie White in the summer of 2011, a couple of years before Mr Hunter died.

The article in Maclean’s magazine is titled, “The most famous Canadian photographer you’ve never heard of“. This was followed by a second email hard on the heels of the first. A second link on George Hunter was included, this time a eulogy and photos on the NFB website. Be patient and scroll down to see the options (your computer really did not hang) – the show begins on its own.

Mr Hunter spoke to us a few times as did Simon Bell whose photo of George we use as an icon for this post.

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a Jolly Irishman makes photography colourful

Posted on March 17, 2023 by Robert

Flower photo taken with the Joly process filters

Toronto. One of the goals of photography was to let light create natural colour. All the methods possible were recorded by the Frenchman, Louis Ducos du Hauron and based on the experiments of James Clerk Maxwell.

Of course today with digital technology and especially with smartphones, it is hard to believe that monochrome photography was the norm, or that the media was so insensitive that colour was impractical for most shots. Imagine!

So it was no wonder that inventors strived to create natural colour photographs. After many years of experimenting, the first commercial colour process went on sale in 1895 using a process that was patented a year earlier by professor John Joly of Dublin.

The website, filmcolors.org, says in part, “In 1894 Professor John Joly of Dublin patented a process for producing a screen of red, green and blue-violet lines by ruling them on a gelatin-coated glass plate. … The Joly process was introduced commercially in 1895, and was the first additive screen-plate process to appear on the market. …”.

The text and some images are from the late Brian Coe’s 1978 book: Colour Photography. The First Hundred Years 1840-1940. London: Ash & Grant, (pp. 46-48).

After a few years this process was superseded by a plethora of colour processes culminating in 1907 with the famous Autochrome process by Auguste and Louis Lumière.

And a happy St Patrick’s day to all you viewers!

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a sunny May 7th in Montreal

Posted on March 16, 2023 by Robert

Montreal General Hospital, September 1962 from top of Mount Royal

Toronto. I probably took the photo at left with an Exakta VXIIa. September 1962 was just before classes began for my third year university program. The walk up to the Mount Royal observation area was an invigorating climb up the stairs at the top of Crescent Street.

I enjoyed the view and warm weather up there. You may be able to spot the Super Constellation aircraft against the clouds, above and just to the right of the Montreal General Hospital which was just off Côte-des-Neiges Road (Snow side).

These memories were prompted by a note from Sol Hadef announcing the spring edition of his ‘Montreal Cameral Show‘ in Montreal’s west end.

Sol summarizes his May 7, 2023 event as follows :

“Sunday, May 7th, 2023 from 10am to 3pm at the Marriott Courtyard Montreal Airport, 7000 Pl. Robert Joncas, Montreal (opposite Ikea)

“Buy, sell, trade, everything photographic; digital and film cameras, lenses, accessories, flash, drones, cine, video, studio gear and much more.

“Visitors pay 7$ at the door. – Tables are $75 (reservations required)”

You can see the show posters here in French or here in English. Also the posters (and rules for exhibitors) are now up on the Rangefinder website. Come on down to Montreal, and enjoy the great weather in May and the city’s charm – remember, it is the LARGEST French speaking city outside France!

Note: The post title is a riff on the 1967 song, “Rainy Night in Georgia” as sung here by the late Brook Benton.

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food for thought

Posted on March 15, 2023 by Robert

My Sony NEX-6 – now a bit long in the tooth with many more camera models announced and marketed.

Toronto. The late Don Douglas was a perennial winner at any of our photo contests. Don once said, ‘the best camera is the one you are holding’, that is any camera is of no use sitting at home when you see the ideal shot.

For those of us with a smartphone (nearly all of us) this means our smartphone camera is always with us. However, Tim Brookes, of How-to Geek feels differently about digital cameras. In his March 11 article titled, “Want Better Smartphone Photos? Buy a Real Camera”, Tim notes that space limitations in smart phones means a very small sensor (even for a 48mx camera) and little or no means to change lenses.

For this reason, he feels any serious photographer needs to consider getting a DSLR or mirrorless camera and using it. I have to say, I have three digital cameras, an iPod Touch which I always have on hand (8 mx) and a Samsung smartphone with the highest pixel count on hand. Food for thought – especially in this day and age of digital wizardry.

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Christmas time and the giftin’ is easy

Posted on March 14, 2023 by Robert

Kodak’s $6.75US timer in colour. Click on it to see the full 1951 gift suggestion ad.

Toronto. Well this is either a few months late or a lot of months early for Christmas! My thanks to George Dunbar for sharing this piece of history with us – a December 1951 ad from Kodak in Popular Mechanics (the small icon is my own Kodak Timer, bought used over 60 years ago).

Like today, all retail stores and many manufacturers promote their products as excellent gifts. For many buyers who were at a loss, it was a bit of a struggle. Books? Clothes? Food? Money? Jewellery? And the list goes on. But! Christmas was an easy time if you had a budding photographer in your family.

Like many photographic product makers and sellers, Kodak joined the annual excitement. Their  1951 ad suggests nearly 50 accessories you could purchase and wrap for your budding photographer. Not shown were the huge variety of Kodak kits, cameras, movie gear, etc. also available for giving.

Note. The post title is a riff on a line in the 1933/4 song “Summertime” sung here in 1957  by Ella and Louie.

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kalart to the rescue

Posted on March 13, 2023 by Robert

mid 20th century ad for Kalart’s flash gun and synchronizer for older amateur cameras predating flash

Toronto. In the mid last century after WW2, flash bulb photography became popular for shooting the very slow media at night or indoors. This avoided using either very slow speeds, or the somewhat intimidating and restraining AC photo flood lamps.

While the availability of cheap flash bulbs was very timely, there was a problem. Many people had and still used older cameras without either ‘synchronized for flash’ shutters, or flash guns.

Into the breech stepped a company called Kalart – known for accessories aimed at the more professional user. This ad from the December, 1951 issue of Popular Mechanics shows the scope of the novel flash gun and synchronizer offered by Kalart.

Thanks to good friend and PHSC member George Dunbar for suggesting this ad and Kalart.

Note: The title of this post  is a play on the song, Jim Dandy. The song, also known as  “JimDandy to the Rescue“, is sung here by the, “Black  Oak Arkansas” group back in 1965.

 

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not in Kansas any more …

Posted on March 12, 2023 by Robert

Construction in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, as the city expands – courtesy of Edward Burtynsky and BBC News

Toronto. My good friend and fellow photo enthusiast George Dunbar sent me a note about one of my favourite photographers – Edward Burtynsky. George writes, “Some wonderful photography in Africa by Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky……here. [The] pictures from above –  What a bird’s eye view of Africa reveals.”

I first saw Burtynsky’s work at a TIFF showing of ‘Manufactured Landscapes”. I later saw one immense photograph taken in China hanging at the AGO.

Note: The title of this post came to mind due to my love of lateral thinking. Africa reminded me of the song of the same name by Toto. In the story, “The Wizard of Oz” which I saw in a movie house as a kid, Judy Garland’s character had a little dog called, “Toto”. The post title paraphrases a line she said to her dog after being carried aloft by a tornado.

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