The Knowing Eye: Photographs & Photobooks

Posted on March 30, 2018 by Robert

Lancaster Cotton Mill c 1908
Lewis W Hine
Swann Sale 2474 Lot 46

Toronto. Daile Kaplan at Swann Auction Galleries in the Big Apple sent me an email a few days back announcing their latest auction, Sale 2474, called, The Knowing Eye: Photographs & Photobooks. The auction begins at 1:30pm on April 19th with previews on the 14th, 16th to 18th and the morning of the auction for a couple of hours from 10 to noon.

If you are in NYC next month, arrange your time to be at the auction and pick up some famous photographs and books for your collection – or to display in your living room! Illustrated here is a Lewis W Hine photograph of a child working in the Lancaster Cotton Mill of New England around 1908. The print was made about 1940 long after such dark practices were banned in America.

You can bid in person, online, or by telephone.

Posted in auction, photos | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on The Knowing Eye: Photographs & Photobooks

a buggie photograph

Posted on March 29, 2018 by Robert

Cheap illumination before LEDs – 1948 LIFE article.

Toronto. Did you ever watch fireflies up at the cottage or in a small town or village at dusk? These little bugs give off a tiny bit of illumination to attract others (mates or food). On Aug 16, 1948, LIFE magazine published an article on an American scientist, Dr Ross Hutchins, who taped a dozen fireflies to the inner rim of an open hole in a board using their light to capture the image of a tiny statuette.

Thanks to Goldie of the Urban Toronto website for suggesting the 1948 LIFE article on using fireflies to illuminate closeups. Hardly practical – exposure took an hour at f/2.5 using film and lenses common about seven decades ago!

 

 

Posted in camera | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on a buggie photograph

CanAm Photo Expo in Niagara Falls ON

Posted on March 28, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. The CanAm Photo Expo takes place the end of next month in Niagara Falls Ontario on April 27 through 29.

Click on the icon at left to see an example of an animal photo (leopard in a tree) courtesy of Graham Hobart. You have until April 6, 2018 to submit  your digital image for the competition.

Posted in events, photos | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on CanAm Photo Expo in Niagara Falls ON

Deep sea photographs and Home children

Posted on March 27, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. PHSC Meeting, Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 7:00 pm
In the BURGUNDY ROOM of the Memorial Hall

Deep Sea Photography – Meaghan Ogilvie
British Home Children – Sandra Joyce
Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be followed by two interesting speakers. Meaghan Ogilvie is an award winning underwater photographer who will speak about the challenges of the deep. Sandra Joyce will speak about the British Home Children and the effect this scheme had on the 100,000 or so children sent here to be farm workers or domestics.

Meaghan Ogilvie (left) and Sandra Joyce

The public is always welcome. Go to our Programs page for directions. Continue reading →

Posted in program | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Deep sea photographs and Home children

We are moving (sort of)

Posted on March 26, 2018 by Robert

Enter and go right
my friend …

Toronto. We have held our monthly Toronto meetings in the Gold room at Memorial Hall for many years. As of the next meeting (April 18, 2018) we will be using half of the Burgundy Room instead. Same place as always, but turn right, not left to enter our new facility (we actually used the Burgundy room many years ago).

Join us in the Burgundy room, North York Memorial Hall every third Wednesday except in July and August when we take a summer break. Note that any off-site meetings or tours will be posted on our web site. Everyone is welcome.

Posted in events, program | Tagged , , | Comments Off on We are moving (sort of)

Daguerreian Society Annual – Indicies

Posted on March 25, 2018 by Robert

Alice – mid 1850s
Daguerreotype portrait by
Southworth and Hawes

Toronto. My thanks to Bob Lansdale for passing along two pdfs compiled by Mark S Johnson, retired editor of the Daguerreian Annual.

Mark says, “I’m sending this “announcement” out as a “group e-mail” to friends. Feel free to pass it along. It includes a separate email address created just for this project, but you can also contact me at my usual address.

“This was a major undertaking but it has been great reviewing all of the wonderful material that has been published in the Annual over the last 25 years. The two PDFs are attached.

“Over the last year I have assembled a 123-page complete index covering the 1990 to 2015 Daguerreian Annuals. This index also includes all of the daguerreotypes illustrated over those years, noted both by daguerreotypist and subject.

“As well, I have produced a 13-page combined Table of Contents, for a complete author listing.

“Both are available in PDF format and are free for the asking. You can reach me, Mark Johnson, retired Annual editor, at:  MrDaguerre@comcast.net“.

NOTE: The photo of the little girl “Alice” is from the 1995 Annual article on Southworth & Hawes of Boston by Anne E Havinga. I first discovered the wonderful daguerreotype portraits of Southworth & Hawes when I bought a copy of The Spirit of Fact  at “The World’s Biggest Bookstore” in downtown Toronto back on September 2nd, 1976 while I was still living in Montreal. Years later, Dover reproduced the book but chose to reduce the image sizes and dropped the focus on accurate colour rendering. The original 1976 book was co-produced by George Eastman House and  David R. Godine in Boston and has absolutely beautiful none reversed illustrations.

Posted in miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Daguerreian Society Annual – Indicies

Kyriakos Kaziras photographic exhibition

Posted on March 24, 2018 by Robert

“Always on my Mind” from
New-York Dream exhibition
by Kyriakos Kaziras

Toronto. GADcollection in Paris France is hosting an exhibition of photographs taken by Kyriakos Kaziras in the Big Apple. The exhibition runs from this March 15 to April 15. You can buy one or more of these dramatic photographs even if you cannot attend the exhibition now underway in Paris.

“Kyriakos Kaziras is a professional photographer, Greek and French, now living in France. Born in Greece, his passion for photography and painting began at an early age, thanks to the influence of his two grandfathers, one an artist and the other a keen amateur photographer.

“His family moved to Geneva when he was 16, where he learned French. He then move to France, where he studied French literature at the Sorbonne. During his first trip to southern Africa, he fell in love with the immensity of the veldt, the light and the animals. Since then he has never stopped travelling to most remote corners of the planet, from African plains to polar regions.

“He draws his inspiration from lights, the search for emotion and encounters. Highly influenced by painting, Kyriakos Kaziras has a very pictural approach to photography. The cameras are his paintbrushes.”

Posted in photos | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Kyriakos Kaziras photographic exhibition

An odd Leitz cable release

Posted on March 23, 2018 by Robert

Leitz OZXVO cable release and box

Toronto. Leitz with its Leica series cameras long felt that a rangefinder was better than an SLR camera for the majority of photographic activities. The SLR style or ground glass through the lens focussing was superior (in their opinion) solely for close ups and long focus lenses beyond 135mm (135mm was useful for either rangefinder or SLR). A mirror box was offered to convert the Leica to an SLR camera using a dual cable release to pop the mirror up and then release the shutter. The camera lens could be set wide open to focus, then stopped down for the exposure as was customary.

The mirror box and dual cable release necessitated a tripod or copy stand. To eliminate this limitation and allow hand held shots (like sports shots for example) using a PLOOT or a Visoflex I mirror box  in suitable daylight, Leitz came up with the OZXVO (later 16403) single cable release in 1953 which released the mirror in a mirror box momentarily before it operated the shutter of a screw (or with a camera adaptor) bayonet mount Leica.

The option was to use the older dual cable release and a tripod to hold the camera, mirror box, and lens. Or to try to hold the rather awkward camera, mirror box, and lens steady while squeezing off a shot with that much less elegant and practical dual cable release.

There was a caution to NOT release the single cable at the camera end without the opposite end attached to a PLOOT or VISOFLEX housing in case the cable was damaged  by the release’s spring action. I have a couple of OZXVOs kicking around, one from Jim McKeen with its box and one from Ev Roseborough without a box.

Posted in camera | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on An odd Leitz cable release

Photographers in the city archives

Posted on March 22, 2018 by Robert

Bill James is kneeling at right.
Other subjects include Frank
O’Byrne (fourth from left in group),
Charlie Roos (centre, with dark
camera), Ren Roos (with Fox News
camera), and Roy Tash (standing at
extreme right).

Toronto. We often wonder (at least I do) how people lived a century ago; how the city looked back then; who was in power; what jobs prevailed. Some of the answers exist in our archives thanks to photographers and historians who anticipated our interests in the distant future.

City archives is slowly digitizing their extensive fonds and putting them online showing how people and places looked before we were born.

George Dunbar, is researching the archives for evidence of photographers from long ago, names that have become famous as we have grown more history conscious.

Here is one such example. It shows a group of photographers – still and movie –  recording the provincially famous at Queen’s Park in the city in 1914, perhaps on the outbreak of the World War. Many names are familiar to PHSC members today from sources including our own journal: people like William James, the Roos, and of course Roy Tash, the subject of an article in our journal.

The photographers of that era had many things in common – all wore hats;  cameras were big; film media was slow; all used tripods or held their cameras braced and steady; and those taking photographs and movies out-numbered those being recorded for history!

Posted in events, people, photos | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Photographers in the city archives

London Camera Show April 15, 2018

Posted on March 21, 2018 by Robert

London Vintage Film
Camera Show

Toronto. Did you miss our auction last Sunday? We had the largest-ever turnout (to a casual observer). In any case, our friends in London are hosting a show next month just a 2 hour drive west of the big smoke.

Our Big One will be held in late May this spring, so if you can’t wait, or want to stretch winter weary legs, then scoot down to London and see what you can pick up for your collection. Details are here on their flyer. And when you visit, be sure to say hello to Maureen or Ron Tucker.

Posted in fair | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on London Camera Show April 15, 2018