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.

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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.”

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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.

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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!

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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.

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Avard Woolaver, photographer

Posted on March 20, 2018 by Robert

Self Portrait by Avard Woolaver 1983

Toronto. Avard Woolaver grew up in Hants county, Nova Scotia, home of many of my ancestors on my mother’s father’s side. Avard is a photographer, author, and a Ryerson grad. He mounted an exhibition in room 310 at the Ryerson School of Image Arts.

You can see a selection of his street scenes and other photos here on his web site. My thanks to George Dunbar, friend and fellow PHSC member who suggested Avard would be of interest to photo historians and fans of relatively contemporary photography.

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pushing colour prints postwar …

Posted on March 19, 2018 by Robert

Kodak Prints in
LIFE May 24, 1948

Toronto. 3 years after the war was over (and then some) the average person preferred black & white prints over colour because of two things: cost and resolution. To promote colour, Kodak embarked on a strong advertising campaign. The company reminded everyone that any roll film camera was a colour camera just by using Kodak Kodacolor print film.

And owners of mini cams (35mm cameras) could join in too by using Kodachrome slide film and asking for colour prints! Home movies could be taken on Kodachrome film and projected in full colour.

My thanks to George Dunbar once again for sending me the May 24th LIFE magazine ad used here.

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Photo News Spring 2018 (27-1)

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Robert

Photo News – Spring 2018

Toronto. Last Tuesday morning as I opened my Globe and Mail over breakfast, I was delighted to see Norm Rosen’s latest publication was a free insert for subscribers.

It was especially welcome as it featured some Macro Photography special articles, a favourite pursuit of mine.  Keep an eye on the website for Photo News as this issue will show there too. Previous issues are already online.

Norm was a speaker at the PHSC last year, discussing publication in Canada.

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PHSC News 17-09 for March 2018

Posted on March 17, 2018 by Robert

Bauer 88D Home Movie
camera from late 1950s

Toronto. Editor Sonja Puschak has produced another delightful edition of the popular PHSC News. To read and down load this issue, just click here or on the Bauer 88B home movie camera at left (a high end model with an f/1.9 Schneider lens and a coupled exposure meter built-in)!

This 12 page edition begins with a discussion of the Oscar winning movie The Shape of Water (shot here and in Hamilton) and comparing its protagonist to that in the 1954 film Creature from  the Black Lagoon. Next is a promotion for our March program Two Toronto Photographers Speak.

Rethinking Birth of the Cool raises issue with the designation hero being applied to those who are not seasoned by time and history.  An editor’s opinion on Privacy Invaders, the dark(ened) room, slide projectors (remember them?), etc.  Read these and other interesting articles, columns, stories and coming events by clicking the links above.

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no place like gnome …

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Robert

Leitz Parvo slide projector

Toronto. From its earliest years the famous little Leica camera was offered with a companion projector. Various models were made to project black and white positives and especially film strips. When I was a school boy in the 1940s I operated a tiny SVC film strip projector to illustrate classes in grade school.

When Kodak came out with Kodachrome colour slides in the late 1930s, Leitz produced a home projector  like the little SVC. The Leitz VIIIc was manufactured from 1938 through 1961 when it was replaced by various semi automatic projectors using slide trays rather than the manual slide changer or optional film strip mechanism. The VIIIc was variously designated as the Parvo (my version), Gnome II, and finally the Prado 100/150. My projector has a 100mm f/2.5 Hektor lens with a round black paper/cardboard lens box. I bought the Parvo, lens, manual slide changer and 5cm condenser set back in 1992 from Larry Boccioletti.

If you want an inexpensive branch of Leitz to collect, consider projectors – like flash guns, they are very inexpensive to amass. Unlike the cameras, lenses, and some accessories, the projectors have little background information readily available.

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