exhibitions – Lisa Murzin, photographer

Posted on April 8, 2018 by Robert

Portion of Murray by Lisa Murzin
Click to see full photo

Toronto. PHSC member Lisa Murzin  is a Toronto based Corporate and Event Photographer. She will be very busy over the next few months.

The young (just about everyone is young to me) photographer from the west side of Toronto has a quintet of showings of her works. Come out to one of the events and enjoy her fine images.

 

 

1. Group show:
Opening: Wednesday May 28 7-9
Living Arts Centre Mississauga  
‘Flashback/Flashforward’ , showcasing previous and current Artists in Residence
May 24- May 19
 
2. Solo show:   
 ‘Harry Was a Cow Caller’
Opening: Saturday April 7, 1-4 pm
Legacy Gallery, Artists Co-op,
942 2nd Avenue East, Owen Sound, Ontario
April 1-30

 

3.  Solo show:
Harry Was a Cow Caller
Opening: Wednesday May 23 7-11pm
#Hashtag Gallery
830 DUNDAS STREET WEST, TORONTO, ONTARIO
May 18-31

4. Juried group show:
George Brown 50×50
opening May 10, 5-9 pm
George Brown Waterfront campus
May1-31

 

5. Featured Exhibition Contact Photography Festival:
‘Red Light’
opening: May 10 6-9pm
Lonsdale Gallery,410 Spadina Road, Toronto, ON
May 2-June 29
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oh! to be in Montreal now that spring is here!

Posted on April 7, 2018 by Robert

Montreal Camera Show

Toronto. My friend Sol Hadef, a PHSC member and a regular at our camera shows, will be hosting his Spring Montreal Camera Show in the West Island area of Montreal tomorrow (April 8th) so if you like good food, a cheery city, and a chance to use your French if you dare (the Montrealers are always helpful to les Anglais 🙂 ) then scoot down the 401 and drop in.

I spent many years in Montreal both before, during, and after University. The smoke meat, bagels,cheesecake, steaks and more are delicious! Sol is hosting his wonderful show at  the Hampton Inn and Suites in Dorval, 1900 trans Canada highway (highway 40) just past the Sources Blvd interchange on the south service road.

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David Granick’s lost London on Kodachrome

Posted on April 7, 2018 by Robert

East End London – David Granick
Stepney Green, 1961

Toronto. Thanks to ex-pat and past PHSC president Mo Patz now in BC for the link to recently discovered London East End photographs on Kodachrome taken by the late photographer David Granick.

Mo’s link to BBC news is just one of many links (and recent books) to these photos. Do a Google on David Granick to see many other links.

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NY Photo Fair this Sat and Sun

Posted on April 6, 2018 by Robert

Coney Island Sailors 1945

Toronto. Heading for the big apple this weekend? Drop by the New York Photography Fair sponsored by our friends at the Daguerreian Society. In fact if you are there Friday,  take in the AIPAD shadow fair at the same locale – the Watson Hotel at 440 W 57th Street.

Lots of people will be there, including Torontonian, Neil MacDonald, who is a frequent seller at our fairs. Drop by and enhance your photo collection!

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Xposé 2018 opening today

Posted on April 5, 2018 by Robert

Xposé April 5, 2018 in Toronto.
Click icon for details

Toronto. The Canadian Association of Professional Image Creators (CAPIC) includes photographers. CAPIC is hosting CAPIC Xposé today, April 5, 2018, from 6 to 10 pm at The Papermill Gallery located at the Todmorden Mills Heritage Site, 67 Pottery Rd down in Don Valley.

Many well known photographers and other image creators will have prints on display from April 6 – 15, 2018.

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Filmos – well made movie equipment of yesteryear

Posted on April 4, 2018 by Robert

A once famous logo

Toronto. Bell & Howell was founded over a century ago in Chicago. Initially, it was famous for high end professional cameras and projectors. Over 80 years ago they introduced their Filmo marque on home model cameras and projectors.

In later years, the company collaborated with Canon on still cameras, moved into 16mm movie equipment, supplied media gear to schools and offices, abandoned the movie business, slowly dispersed their non-information technology lines, and finally succumbed to the digital forces selling their trademarks to makers of cheap digital gear. The company merged a number of times and was renamed Bell and Howell. The company, owned by Versa Capital was spun off as a separate subsidiary in October of 2017. It now makes and sells direct mail and parcel labelling equipment.

My thanks to Goldie of Toronto for catching this memorable advertisement from the February 28, 1949 issue of LIFE magazine. As a matter of interest, one of our presidents, the late Bill Belier, was heavily involved with Bell & Howell’s Canadian branch around the time of or shortly after this ad when the company was known for photographic products.

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the little Ansco Panda

Posted on April 3, 2018 by Robert

Ansco Panda from an ad
in the December 6, 1948
LIFE magazine.

Toronto. In the mid 1900s the vast majority of folk bought Kodak cameras and films. For the rebels (and second string stores) there were Ansco cameras and films. The Kodak Baby Brownie came out in 1934 and was made under various names and in various configurations. Early versions sported a folding frame finder while later ones had a tiny eye level optical finder. They all took the size 127 film with small contact prints of about 1.5 x 2.5 inches. The one I had in 1948 was the style made about 1936 – 1954.

To compete, Ansco sold the Panda model made from about 1939 to 1950. While it was still a box camera with a very basic shutter and lens, it used the bigger 620 film (about 2-1/4 inch square contact prints) and had a large, bright  waist level viewfinder, aping the very expensive twin-lens reflex cameras of the day like the Rollei.

My thanks to Toronto’s Goldie for suggesting this December 6, 1948 ad from LIFE magazine showing the Panda as the ideal Christmas gift. This model was comparable to my then new Baby Brownie which went with me on a grade six bus tour to Midland, Ontario.

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Spiess at Bulger this April

Posted on April 2, 2018 by Robert

Karl Spiess

Toronto. The late Karl Spiess of Germany took many photographs in war torn Europe during the second world war (WW2). Newz4u.ca recently announced that the Stephen Bulger Gallery here in Toronto in a recent article would feature his photographs.

The article says in part, “On April 14th the famed Stephen Bulger Gallery will be launching the Canadian book Karl Spiess 1891-1945: A Saxon Light Artist and His Photographs by Dietmar Riemann and published by Carl Spiess. The original German book was released in Germany last year dedicated to ‘the women and men who lost their lives without legal advice in Soviet-Russian internment camps in the east of Germany.’”

The book and the Gallery have a selection of prints from period glass plate negatives taken by Karl Spiess about 80-90 years ago. The Karl Spiess book site linked above states in part, “The last works of German Photographer Karl Spiess were to be disposed of in a dump in East Germany.

“220 of his glass negatives were saved by photographers Dietmar and Marga Riemann. The negatives demonstrate his skill as a photographer and capture a moment of time long forgotten.

“There is now a complete book outlining his life as a photographer and citizen of Germany in the 1920s to 1945. We look forward to eventually sharing the negatives with a Canadian archive that will continue to preserve and contextualize these important images.”

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The earliest days of American photography

Posted on April 1, 2018 by Robert

B&O Locomotive near Oakland MD

Toronto. Thanks to my good friend and co-founder of the PHSC, John Linsky, for emailing me about this NY Times article on the Getty exhibition of early American photography by Rena Silverman. I did a post about the Getty exhibition earlier but the NY Times puts a different spin on things – Rena begins with this paragraph, “The most forged documents in financial history were the work of ordinary rascals who needed little skill to make money. All they needed was a camera.”

She goes on to review both forgeries and photography’s early days. She includes photos from the Getty exhibition too (like the Baltimore & Ohio railway locomotive above left taken around 1860 near Oakland Maryland).

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The photograph that changed modern portraiture

Posted on March 31, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. Philippe Halsman and Salvador Dali were friends. One was a famous portrait photographer; the other a modern artist famous for his many weird and surreal paintings. In fact as a youth I bought a book on Dali and his surrealist paintings – those with melting clocks, long limbed people and crutches.

After the war (in 1949) Dali created a painting based on the mythological Leda and the Swan, but with everything floating. He called it Leda Atomica. Halsman, worked to create a similar  portrait of Dali called it Dali Atomica (see at left). Years later his daughter who helped make the portrait as a child narrated a short video here on how it was accomplished.

My thanks to George Dunbar who found the August 9, 1948 LIFE  magazine article on Halsman’s portrait of his friend Salvador Dali, Dali Atomica. 

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