PHRC Conference 2020 De Montfort University

Posted on June 14, 2020 by Robert

PHRC Conference is online in 2020 (June 15, 16)

Toronto. Our Programme co-ordinator, Celio Barreto, is joining this prestigious conference on photographic history in Leicester U.K. tomorrow and Tuesday (June 15, 16). Everything (including registration) will be online in this time of COVID-19.

The full title of the conference  at De Montfort University is: Camera Education
Photographic Histories of Visual Literacy, Schooling, and the Imagination

Celio writes in part, “I’m on Day Two, Panel 6: Social and Political Propaganda, chaired by Gil Pasternak.
“I am very happy, thrilled and nervous, and just wanted to share this update with you!”

You may recall that in addition to teaching at Seneca and handling our programmes, Celio has spoken twice at our Toronto monthly meetings on his area of expertise – Japanese photography in the 1800s.

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PHSC News for June 2020

Posted on June 13, 2020 by Robert

c1940 war time ROSS HK-7 camera by Victor Hasselblad

Toronto. My, it’s June 2020 already and the infamous COVID-19 pandemic is in decline (or is it waiting to re-emerge even deadlier this winter, like the 1918 Spanish Flu did in late 1918 and early 1919?).

Meantime, our editor extraordinaire, Sonja Pushchak, has composed the final issue of PHSC News (20-02 – June 2020) before our summer break.

Page 1 reflects the assistance our country gave to our eastern long term care (LTC) homes; followed by page 2 and a virtual rendering of notes in place of the usual PHSC Presents. Page 3 tackles the idiosyncrasies of policies to avoid COVID-19; while page 4 discusses attempts to rewrite history by erasing photos. Page 5 presents Sarah Cooper and her take on the silly advice emanating from American president Trump on avoiding infection. Filters are reviewed by David, followed by his web links helping partner Louise (NB my copy of Kodak’s print guide uses both a white and a black model, each to great effect).

Page 8 covers alternatives for our monthly meetings plus a note from Celio, our programme coordinator. On page 9, Vi and Dot discuss the Dutch Bob hair cut and the impact of some famous folk who wore it including Louise Brooks (my favourite silent movie actress). This issue wraps up with the classifieds on page 10. If you do nothing else this month, check out Randy Rainbow and his parodies of G&S songs using strange utterances by the Donald himself.

You can visit this issue by clicking on the camera above, or g0ing to the menu item NEWSLETTER. There is a drop down menu to take you to older issues dating back a couple of decades to the very beginning of newsletters.

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idiot proofing film loading

Posted on June 12, 2020 by Robert

Argus goes Instamatic in May 1965 LIFE ad

Toronto. The giant Kodak corporation of mid last century dictated film sizes and packaging. One of their extensive studies showed that amateurs had a difficult time changing film. To simplify this task, Kodak invented the instamatic film pack. This 126 roll film Kodapak fitted in the camera one way only. There was no need to insert an end and roll to a number, rewind, set film speed, etc. It was all automatic.

Critics said higher end cameras with faster lenses using the format were not worth buying since the pack’s film would not stay flat along the focal plane. However, for the amateur and family snap shooters, it was a blessing.

The film took off with the Kodak cameras that used it. Other makers like Argus (in the ad at left from p. 18 of the May 21, 1965 issue of LIFE magazine) also chose to design cameras using instamatic film to leap on the 126 bandwagon. Thanks to fellow PHSC member George Dunbar for highlighting this bit of pre-digital history.

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far far away

Posted on June 11, 2020 by Robert

Photo by  Jonn Leffmann, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=79524496

Toronto. Star Wars movies always began with a scroll beginning … in a galaxy far, far, away … . We often call any lens that brings in distant objects closer and compress the perspective a telephoto lens.

But the actual lens can be either a long focus or a telephoto. So what’s the difference? Basically, at infinity any long focus lens focusses about the same distance back to the camera as its focal length while a telephoto lens has a distance physically back to the camera that is shorter than its focal length.

For example, the 13.5cm Elmar or Hector is a long focus lens while the more compact Tele-Elmar 13.5cm lens is  a true tele-photo lens design. Either design makes for a great lens but the more compact tele design is easier to use/carry.

NB. While I was thinking of Star Wars when I named this post, Slade have a song of the same name…

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by the light …

Posted on June 10, 2020 by Robert

Full moon. earth eclipse takes place around 1 am tomorrow. Used tripod and remote control.

Toronto. … of the silvery moon. said the old song long long ago.  On the night of December 20, 2010 we were on the eve of an eclipse. Tripod in hand, I took this image with a Leitz Telyt 20cm lens attached to a Sony NEX-5 camera. The resulting image was adjusted (cropped, etc.) in Photoshop.

The lighting of the full moon is reminiscent of the northern light with its soft shadows. Of course the overall light intensity of a full moon is far too dim to substitute for a northern exposure in the early days of photography and the ultra slow emulsions of the 1800s. In studio, northern exposure daylight was best with side lighting to model the facial features to a more “plastic” and pleasing look rather than the flat effect of head-on lighting (or worse with flash, burned out highlights on the face and dark shadows behind).

Professional photographers made their most memorable shots by capturing the essence  of their subject with complementary lighting and framing.  If flash was used, it took a large soft-box or bounce from a light-coloured wall to properly illuminate the subject in a pleasing manner. Not the kind of approach used by many of the amateur snap-shooters of the day (with or without flash).

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Elsa dead at 83

Posted on June 9, 2020 by Robert

Self-Portrait, Sept 15, 1986
 © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Toronto. Elsa Dorfman of Cambridge, MA was best known for her huge (20x 24 inch) polaroid portraits, In an article by Deborah Becker on May 30th this year, Station WBUR announced her death (1937 – 2020). Her husband, Harvey Silverglate, attributed her death to complications from kidney failure.

Have a look at both the above links to see the effect Elsa had on  photography. Her death was mentioned at a recent executive meeting. Bob Lansdale followed up with a note on June 6th, attaching a screen grab from the  PHSNE newsletter on Ms Dorfman.

She had a wonderful rapport with the subjects of her portraits as can be seen in the photo at left (click to enlarge, or visit the WBUR link).

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I, said the page …

Posted on June 8, 2020 by Robert

1870 image from TPL archive titled “Robert Cunningham, reporter for Toronto Daily Telegraph, and Indians, beside canoe”

Toronto. … beginning to fade. A line in the song dedicated to the late Marilyn Monroe called, “Who Killed Norma Jean” sung by Pete Seeger, in answer to the question, “who will soon forget?”.  In this age of digital photography, we forget just how easily the old photographs faded, especially when poorly washed after the processing.

In the mid to late 1800s, charlatans abounded in the industry and fading was a common lament by folks who had paid for a “likeness” taken by such an unskilled person.

This original is held in the Toronto Public Library digital archive. Clicking on the icon at left you can see the transformation by George Dunbar using modern day computer technology to increase contrast giving the century plus photo a much punchier contrast.

Mind you some proprietary  processes like the chromotype photographs (collected by our journal editor – see Photographic Canadiana vols 31-1, 31-2) do not fade and are as sharp and as full of highlights and deep tones as when first made. Such photos are uncommon and can be easily spotted by the practiced eye.

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so’s yer mudder

Posted on June 7, 2020 by Robert

a camera only a mother could love …

Toronto. When I was a kid, one of the insults we hurled at each other was “your mudder’s so ugly she wears army boots”. And the rebuttal was, “so’s yer old mudder”. Well in my opinion, the 1965 Kodak Instamatic 800 is down right ugly. Then again we came through a time when North American cars looked like jet aircraft.

The marketeers touched all bases to make this camera   series idiot proof.  Unfortunately in doing so it was all awkward corners and bits that jutted out. Not a pretty design even for the mid 1960s. Remember Leitz sold the beautiful, ergonomic M series at the time. This ad from page 19 of the April 2, 1965 LIFE magazine shows what Kodak considered an elegant design. The film used was another Kodak design, a drop-in film cartridge that even a klutz could change and not mess things up.

My thanks again to my friend George Dunbar for suggesting this bit of history when Kodak was the huge factor in North American photography.

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make everybody welcome

Posted on June 6, 2020 by Robert

William Bell and Grandma, from the Bell-Sloman Collection of the James Gibson Library, Brock University

Toronto. I have been a member since the first year of the PHSC and in that time we have had speakers and members regardless of race, religion, or gender (the full gamut). In that time I have seen only one black photographer and a few women as members. In later years, we saw more female photographers, female speakers, and speakers of colour.

The photo at left is from the Bell-Sloman Collection  in St Catharines, Ontario. It was sourced from the talk given by Dr Julie Crooks of the AGO in February 2018.

As a society (especially in Canada), we can all be more open and embracing. On behalf of the PHSC, our VP, Ms Ashley Cook, wrote the following heart-felt message in reaction to the sad death of George Floyd south of the border and the ensuing days of discontent world wide:

“We don’t know what to say, and words may not be enough right now, but we will not stay silent.

“We acknowledge that we need to show more diversity within the photographic history of this country. This is the time to learn, build empathy, and understanding.

“BLACK LIVES MATTER”.

 

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dyna-what?

Posted on June 5, 2020 by Robert

Dynachrome 35mm slide film ad in LIFE

Toronto. In the March 27th, 1964 issue of LIFE magazine (p42), the 3M company ran this unusual ad for a colour transparency film called Dynachrome. Did you ever use it?

In 1954, the American government was hell-bent to separate any perceived trusts by large companies . In that year, Kodak was forced to separate Kodachrome manufacture and processing.

When Kodachrome patents expired, some organizations made a Kodachrome clone with built-in processing, selling for the price of Kodak’s film alone (companies too small for the trust busters). Around 1959 a clone was made by Dynacolor and called Dynachrome. Around 1963, the company was sold to 3M and the above advertisement showed up and ran for a few months in LIFE magazine. 3M used price to whittle off a bit of the burgeoning amateur photography market for itself.

You can read more detail about the history of the film and the suspected production and processing variations underneath the marketing names on the Photography Forums web site.

A big thank you to fellow PHSC member George Dunbar for spotting this bit of film history and passing it along.

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