le magasin des Galeries Lafayette de Paris en 1912

Posted on August 22, 2019 by Robert

Galaries Lafayette, Paris

Toronto. What a wonderful use of photography – and architecture! A 1912 photograph shows how the Lafayette Galaries (retail department store) used natural lighting at their flagship store in Paris with this beautiful dome. The new store opened in 1912. Check it out on Google maps!

The huge open area reminds me of the Toronto Reference library at Asquith and Yonge!

Galaries Lafeyette is still in operation today as an international chain. The flagship Paris store offers clothing from off the shelf budget wear to high fashion. Same location as in 1912.

Their website shows some of goods n offer, while the Wikipedia site shows international stores in operation, closed, and planned. My thanks to Russ Forfar for thoughtfully emailing me his find on facebook. By the way, the photo was posted by a person with the nom de plume “Lumière de l’Atelier” – check his blog for his fascinating lighting creations.

 

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a blast from the past…

Posted on August 21, 2019 by Robert

Aires 35 IIIL ad in LIFE

Toronto. … to borrow a line from a local radio station. Aires cameras were made in Tokyo, Japan. The Aires Camera Industries Company lasted less than a decade (1952 – 1960). While short lived, the company rode the wave of Japanese cameras crashing on the shores of the Western world routing most of the competing non-Japanese manufacturers.

This ad, tucked away on page 108, in the June 17, 1957 issue of LIFE magazine touted the modest little 35mm camera made by Aires Camera and imported by Kalimar Inc in St Louis Missouri for North American consumption. The Kalimar company imported and rebranded many photographic products. At the end of 1999 it was bought by Tiffen of Tiffen Filters fame.

I remember admiring Aires cameras around the time I purchased my Minolta Super A and being pleasantly surprised by the quality of the Asian cameras (complete with their instruction books written in a strange language a bit similar to English :-).

Thanks to fellow PHSC member George Dunbar (once an IBM photographer) for sharing the Aires ad in Life magazine…

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double your pleasure

Posted on August 20, 2019 by Robert

Whoops! c1981

Toronto. The “double your pleasure, double your fun” jingle may have applied to Wrigley’s Double Mint gum but it certainly did not apply to accidental photographic double exposures.

In fact, camera makers went out of their way to tout their designs as “double exposure proof”.

Unfortunately, we all succumb to those momentary periods of stupidity –  even Leica users. Usually my mistake was rewinding a fully or partially exposed roll of film then forgetting to mark it. It would then be used some weeks or months later in the camera and re-exposed to totally different scenes. Bah!

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the long and the short of it

Posted on August 19, 2019 by Robert

extension tubes

Toronto. Those photographers wishing to get closer to their subject than their camera allowed had two choices: an auxiliary lens could be added to the front of the normal lens, or if the lens was interchangeable, the lens could be mounted away from the body using extension tubes, or if money was no object, a bellows.

The remaining issues then where how to focus and how to frame the camera so the subject was in sharp focus and framed without accidental surgery, like missing heads or feet in normal shots. The major camera companies not using an SLR design had lots of options – spider legs, focussing mounts, mirror boxes, tape measures, tables etc.

A tripod or a copy stand was often essential to keep the subject framed and in focus – spider legs or a fancy wire frame could be substituted.

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faster than a speeding bullet

Posted on August 18, 2019 by Robert

Super Anscochrome ad in 1957

Toronto, No, it’s not Superman – it’s Super Anscochrome colour film. Anscochrome touted its film as being “faster than standard black-and-white film” on pp32-3 of the June 17, 1957 issue of LIFE. With ads like this, the Binghamton Brigade set out to tell the world about their marvellous products.

As number two in the photography industry, Ansco always had to try harder to catch up with Kodak. They too made film, cameras, papers, projectors, etc. Post war Ansco became a division of GAF – General Analine and Film.

When Don Douglas and I did a dog and pony show for the PHSC, Don always brought samples from his Ansco camera collection, He was fond of saying that Ansco cameras always used a bright red shutter button, “so you could tell your aunt Tilley to just push the red button…“.

 

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a long shot

Posted on August 17, 2019 by Robert

working for peanuts

Toronto. I saw this Exakta ad long ago. In fact, it was part of my mental background making me decide to go for an Exakta decades ago back before I was married, or a father.  The big selling point was that viewing was through the lens rather than through a squinty viewfinder.

In those days, I had no idea that Leica mirror boxes let you see through the lens as well, all be it in a much clunkier fashion. Or that Exaktas were not really meant for wide angle lenses. Or that the bulk of my photographs would ultimately be taken with a medium wide angle (35mm) lens.

This photograph appeared in LIFE magazine’s “Miscellany” column at the back of the June 3, 1957 issue. It emphasized the virtue of using an SLR over a viewfinder/rangefinder camera back  in the late 1950s before the onslaught of Japanese SLRs and their innovations. Exaktas were made in Dresden which after the war ended up in the Russian zone. My camera body, although imported via New York, is boldly stamped U.S.S.R.

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CNE and Cinematographe

Posted on August 16, 2019 by Robert

An exciting time at the CNE in 1896

Toronto. Cinema and Movies seem so passé these days of TV, streaming, and smartphones but over a century ago movies where the newest means of education and entertainment. The CNE was known as the “Toronto Industrial Exhibition” in those days and was the place to go to see the very latest ideas and inventions.

In 1896, the Lumiere Brothers latest movies and machines were on exhibit for all to see. What a marvellous time! This photograph is courtesy of the Ryerson University’s website. I noticed the Dreamland theatre in Barrie was mentioned as one of the province’s movie venues in a 1915 listing. The Dreamland moved to a building just south of the “five points” in Barrie around 1929 and closed forever about a decade later.

When I was a kid in grade 9 or 10, my dad took me to that long closed theatre. It had become a used goods ((junk) store known as Nipper Tuck’s. Nipper was said to live in the projection booth while the entire auditorium area was filled with junk he had collected over the years for future resale. The building was being cleared to house the new home of the local newspaper, the “Barrie Examiner”.

Since the 1930s/40s movies dwelt on the main street in three nearby movie houses. A fourth, a drive-in, opened post war in the town’s south west area. Since then, the excitement of 1896 and the Cinematographe of the Lumière brothers, has drifted into history and few regard “going to the movies” as a special event these days. With a population of over ten times its size when the Dreamland shut forever, Barrie has only half as many movie houses left (two).

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Louis who? Movies before Edison?

Posted on August 15, 2019 by Robert

Single Lens Camera

Toronto. Thanks to my good friend George Dunbar who emailed me when he found this insightful article. Back in August 29, 2013, the British National Science+Media Museum website in Bradford, UK posted the article by Kieron Casey. Casey suggested that Louise Le Prince invented and demonstrated movies years before Edison and the Lumière Bros. promoted their inventions in North America (Edison) and Europe (Lumières).

Have a read – it is a thoughtful mystery!

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surprise!

Posted on August 14, 2019 by Robert

surprise!

Toronto.  You do remember actress Mamie Van Doren don’t you? No? What about photographer Ralph Crane? No, again? Then you are either too young or never saw a movie last century in a theatre or on TV!

Crane worked for LIFE magazine in Hollywood, California – you know, where movies were made. And he took photographs for that prestigious magazine.

Having both a humorous side and a 35mm robot camera, he concocted this gadget to catch the reaction of his victims, er subjects. Have a read of LIFE magazine’s April 22, 1957 column “Speaking of Pictures” on p20.

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the great yellow father

Posted on August 13, 2019 by Robert

Kodak was everywhere in 1957

Toronto.  In the early to mid last century Kodak was the pre-eminent name in photography. The company was known world-wide. Retailers featured Kodak film, paper, and if not exclusively camera shops, Kodak cameras and gift kits.

Kodak offered every imaginable variety of camera: box, 35mm, professional (Graflex), movie, stereo, fancy, or cheap. A camera for everyone and an insistence on using Kodak accessories, filters, films and papers.

A Professional branch catered to the pros offering professional products not readily available to amateurs. I can remember asking a retailer for a Kodak product and being advised I would have to contact Kodak or its professional chain for the product since he could not order it.

This 1957 ad in LIFE shows the amazingly wide range of Kodak products for amateurs back in the mid last century when the Rochester company was a force to be reckoned with (as I mangle my grammar). A special thanks to George Dunbar for sourcing the ad and bringing back so many memories.

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