lookin’ for Llewellyn

Posted on July 9, 2019 by Robert

1913 ad for retouching desk

Toronto. On June 17th, Kay McGinnis wrote me searching for information on Llewellyn Abbott, or more precisely our articles on his photo studio employers in the big smoke. I sent Kay copies as asked and sent her request on to our editor, Bob Lansdale, who is keen on the history of Canadian photographers and studios.

Kay later received a pdf copy of our journal with Ev Roseborough’s article on retouching. As Kay explained, Abbott was listed in Might’s city directory as both a photographer and a retoucher. Abbott spent a decade as a retoucher for Chas Aylett who was well known for his quality portraits of famous people.

She posted the story of Llewellyn Abbot on her blog “McRoberts Avenue” as 25 McRoberts Avenue. Kay wrote a well researched article on Abbott from his early days in Meaford Ontario as a photographer through his various positions here in Toronto before, during, and after the second world war.

She would welcome any additional details and photos of Llewellyn Abbott. Drop me a note or contact Kay via her blog.

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movies, colour slides, and loose change

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Robert

Save $12.85 cents in 1956

Toronto.  After about two decades of scrimping, the average person finally had some money for discretionary spending. Marketeers leaped on this largess and pummelled the common man with ideas for things he did not need. In the case of photography, the fresh ideas were home movies and colour slides.

Neither movies nor slides were viewable without a projector so Joe Average just had to have one (or two). And who could deprive his family of his child’s motion, or memories of his family in FULL COLOR?

Ansco and Bell and Howell collaborated to sell colour slide film and a slide projector saving the buyer money. While the savings seem trivial today, in 1956 that amount was a week’s salary to many in small towns. The ad was printed in LIFE magazine in the July 23, 1956 issue. Like many such ads, it was a deal LIMITED to the USA. This was due to other companies having the right to import the branded items and set prices, but deciding NOT to collaborate on the deal.

In the late 1950s I too used Anscochrome and its Easy Loader. The roll of unexposed colour slide film was even notched to fit a 35mm camera. The kit included eight unused cassettes each boldly marked with the Anscochrome logo.

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where the girls are

Posted on July 7, 2019 by Robert

video on LIFE’s female photographers.

Toronto. We have fought for many kinds of equality over the years. One kind is gender equality. Before retiring almost 30 years ago, I watched Bell struggle to improve gender equality. Recently, our federal government bravely formed a senior group of MPs, half of whom were women. Things didn’t go quite as planned…  And record companies like Ace made compilations of female groups.

In this recent nod to gender equality, the New York Historical Society, mounted an exhibition of some of Life magazine’s better known women photographers called “Women Behind the Lens” and curated by Marilyn Satin Kushner.

The BBC  featured a short video on the subject. Thanks to George Dunbar for bringing this video to my attention.

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“I see”, said the blind man …

Posted on July 6, 2019 by Robert

Carpenters in 1909
by P H Figary of Toronto

Toronto. — as he picked up his hammer and saw … This old bromide was around when I was a kid. The photograph at left was taken by P (Philip) H Figary, 590 Yonge St, Toronto (west side of Yonge, a few doors above Wellesley. Click to see 590 Yonge St  today from Google Street View). The shot at left is from the TPL and shows  a collection of carpenters. It caught my eye because my mother was born in Toronto West/Junction in 1909 and her grandfather was a carpenter.

Remember, when you do your Canadian photographic research, the wealth of details we have here in our city archives, our schools and our library System. Just saying!

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the boys of summer

Posted on July 5, 2019 by Robert

Homer by NY Yankees great Mickey Mantle – photo by Ralph Morse

Toronto. Don Henley was a singer and percussionist for The Eagles before that dysfunctional group imploded. Most of the group went on to play solo – some with their own bands. Henley made a CD called “Building the Perfect Beast”. The lead song was called “The Boys of Summer“, a tag earlier applied to baseball players.

Micky Mantle was one of the great players of his time and he was captured at each base during a home run he hit for his team, the New York Yankees, at Cleveland’s stadium. A serious drinker and womanizer, Mantle paraphrased near the end of his life, “If I’d known I was gonna live this long, I’d have taken a lot better care of myself”.

The homer multiple exposure photo was taken by Ralph Morse for LIFE magazine and appeared in its June 25, 1956 issue on pages 106,7.

It was unusual in that intentional multiple exposures on a single negative with such accuracy were unheard of in that era. So called double exposures in camera were considered a rookie mistake. In the darkroom more than one negative could be and often was used to make a print.

My thanks to George Dunbar for sharing this remarkable photograph with me.

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Al Who’s little Italian Buddy

Posted on July 4, 2019 by Robert

San Giorgio magnifier for focussing slide c1950

Toronto. The company “San Giorgio” (St George in English) was founded in Genova, Italy in 1905 to manufacture automobiles. Like many companies, products changed to those with more potential for profit. San Giorgio S.I.p.A. dropped automobiles and moved on to optical instruments including cameras.

After the second world war, it briefly made cameras based on screw mount Leicas (the Janua series) and many accessories including a focussing stage and a ground glass magnifier.

Unlike Leitz, they made a shell with inserts for various magnifications. I have a shell plus the 20x and 40x magnification inserts purchased from Robert Pins in the States back in 1988.

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have you seen Al Who?

Posted on July 3, 2019 by Robert

LWHOO 30x aerial image viewer     c mid 1930s or later

Toronto. Leitz was determined to see the tiny Leica camera succeed as a “do anything bigger cameras can do” camera. For copy work, a focussing stage was offered. The stage swapped the Leica with a ground glass viewer for focussing. The most common viewer for the ground glass was the 5x LVFOO.

In the very centre of the ground glass is a clear glass circle. The LOOWH and LWHOO were 30x magnifiers that allowed an aerial image to be viewed for extra precise focussing.

The LOOWH came to market in 1936 with a slide-in ground glass mount. Two years later the LWHOO was marketed, this time with a bayonet mount that would also fit the slide-in ground glass mount. Some books suggest the transition to the new telegraph code word of LWHOO was earlier, around 1936. There seems to be no record of when the manufacture of either 30x magnifier stopped.

I picked up my LWHOO back in November of 1980 from PHSC member Pim Schryer. The signature (Ernst Leitz Wetzlar)  suggests post war manufacture.

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New York in 1914 with the prototype Leica camera

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Robert

Ernst Leitz II: New York City, 1914 © Leica Camera AG.

Toronto. On the eve of the Great War, the son and namesake of Ernst Leitz, Ernst Leitz II, arrived  in the Big Apple with the novel tiny ur-Leica created by Oskar Barnack. Leitz took a number of street scenes with the tiny camera to the indifference of New Yorkers since cameras of the day tended to be much larger, tripod mounted, or box shaped.

One photograph has survived and is frequently reproduced, showing that work on the tiny camera began over a decade before it was marketed. The Great war intervened delaying its release until a market turn-down for microscopes prompted its manufacture and sale in 1924.

Information abounds on the Leica and its place in history such as wikipedia’s “Leica_Camera“, the brief history on the site “Not Quite in Focus“, and Wild-Heerbrugg’s excellent “history and milestones of Leica” (Wild-Heerbrugg also made microscopes and once collaborated and merged with Leitz. The Canadian branch was called Wild-Leitz when I first visited in the late 1970s/early80s ). Many more sites show up on a Google browse.

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you’ve come a long way!

Posted on July 1, 2019 by Robert

iPhone Xs camera – 12 mpx

Toronto. Most of the title was the motto of Benson and Hedges’ new (1960s) brand of cigarettes “Virginia Slims“. By the 1960s cigarettes were at their height of fashion and popularity but clouds were on the horizon. A key demographic not yet reached by the mainly male oriented tobacco industry was the young female newly empowered to vote, work, and dream.

Virginia Slims by design were thinner diameter and longer than other brands subconsciously suggesting a slim figure for their target female customers.

Like cigarettes in the 1960s, photography today has come a long way too. When first announced, the process was slow, monochromatic, and highly technical limiting its use to a select minority of practitioners. Nevertheless, the new art took the world by storm and photographic studios began popping up everywhere. Some were operated by very competent people, others by outright charlatans out to make a buck from the newest trend. Over the decades the proportion of photographers grew and the new art sprouted a variety of specialized skills – studio, war, news, street, scientific, medical, amateur, etc. By the turn of the last century some colour processes appeared. But to the very end film was slow, fussy, and generally low resolution. Continue reading →

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a great smoke

Posted on June 30, 2019 by Robert

Cigar left by U. S. Grant in Houseworth’s  photo studio San Francisco, CA c 1860

Toronto. Many of us are unaware that the U.S. civil war prompted Britain to establish our country in 1867. Ulysses  S Grant led the North in the fierce battle over slavery.

This CdV is stored in the archive of the NYPL, an institutional member of the PHSC for decades. It is shown here courtesy of that institute’s Digital  Collections. You can also view their online guide here. The site lists this CdV as an albumen silver  print mounted on 2.5 by 4 inch card stock.

Thanks to George Dunbar for finding this CdV gem!

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