Toronto. Member Gary Perry’s latest Camerama show is scheduled for Sunday, Apri 22, 2018 at the usual venue, the Edward Village Hotel.
<== Click the icon at left for details.
For table rental or more information, call Gary at 905-550-7477 or email him at torontocamerashows@gmail.com
Marge Addison in 1979 by
Wayne Sproule (click to
see the large photograph).
Toronto. We were saddened to learn that the first membership secretary of the PHSC has passed away. Marge held the post from 1974 to 1981. She was membership secretary in 1975 when I joined the PHSC. She and husband Jack operated a portrait and wedding studio in Scarborough for many years. Her husband was both president and editor of the Photographic Canadiana in our early years.
When Jack retired from the EMS (Emergency Medical Services), he and Marge moved to a small community in Eastern Ontario (Verona, Ontario). Marge was our fourth member and a Charter Member (CM) as well (the CM designation is used by a member who joined in our first year, 1974). Her picture is from a cover shot of Photographic Canadiana, Volume 4-6 March/April 1979. The larger photograph shows members the executive of the PHSC in 1979. In the large picture the subjects from the left are: Front Row: Marge Addison, John Linsky, Roger Whitlock, and John (Jack) Addison. Back Row: Harold McNutt, Bob Dynes and Ron Anger.
Horse Fly on cylindrical
Angenieux lens box c1958
Anscochrome Labrador
Toronto. George Dunbar sent me this November 10th, 1947 LIFE magazine ad on Ansco Color. In the late 1950s I chose Ansco (called Anscochrome by then) transparencies for the colour photographs I would take while on assignment in Labrador since the film could be bought in bulk and wound for the 35mm camera and more importantly, the process permitted personal development in about an hour. I would send the colour transparency strip south to my mother to cut and mount the transparencies in cardboard mounts. Colour prints of the time were expensive, low resolution and had poor colour fidelity unless very carefully processed.
Mounting was a job we later undertook on site. The film technology used large colour molecules which stayed trapped in each colour layer so we used one B&W developer and one colour developer after a second none critical exposure. The film used a process first created by Agfa in Germany and initially licensed to Ansco for sale in North America.
After the war, Kodak used a similar process to make Ektachrome. Kodachrome was far more complex and emphasized different colours. It used a very complex processing methodology with a developer for each colour layer and smaller more colour accurate molecules that would drift from one layer to another if the simpler Ansco developer was used. The many Kodachrome baths were all extremely critical on a time – temperature basis.
Biographies of Western
Photographers – Carl Mautz
Toronto. Carl Mautz of California sent me an email recently announcing his massive 5 pound hard cover book Biographies of Western Photographers. The book covers photographers who worked in the American and Canadian West when photography began. The book was “45 years in the making” and its 772 letter size pages contain “over 20,000 thumbnail biographies”.
For those of us into the history of photographers, the book may be well worth the price ($175US pus shipping). Carl did warn me that international shipping is far higher than the $6 US shown for domestic mailing in the continental USA.
March 18 2018 General Auction
Toronto. Our annual spring auction will be a general auction. All people are welcome – and all their acceptable lots (we reserve the right to accept any lots). Please note we have limited space available for the lots.
<<Click the icon to see the details – time, place, etc.
Need a map? Click here to see/print our book mark!
There is a slide show of many of the committed lots (click the icon below). Additional photos of lots will be posted to the slide show as they become available. Our second posting eliminates some duplicate images, touches up a few images, and adds more lots.
Thanks to John Linsky for noting some redundancies and images needing a tweak. This is the second update to the original. I have added a large studio camera this time and changed the sequence a bit. Update 3 just finished with two more blocks of images. This is shaping up to be a fabulous auction with old lenses, studio cameras, classic cameras, classic lenses, photographs and more ALREADY offered as lots! Wayne Gilbert tells me he will have a number of books up for auction from the library of the late Harry Joy, his father-in-law and a one time PHSC member.
Quality collectibles at the Spring PHSC General Auction. Click the icon above, then the small upper left icon of a Leica and 9cm Elmar on the next page. Next click any small icon to view a larger image. You can now use your arrows to move to the next/previous large picture. Or you can just scroll the previous group of small icons to see images of all lots committed to date. (Note that some items are shown more than once from different perspectives).
Come on out and see this fine auction and consider bidding on these pieces for your use or your collection! Admission is free and the parking is easy! P.S. No car? Try the 501 TTC Streetcar!
Kodak Girl(s) on catalogues
Toronto. Have you ever heard of the “Kodak Girl?” No? She was the brainchild of George Eastman many years ago. Men bought cameras. Men looked at pretty women, Case closed! Oh, yes, and the Kodak Girl showed the women of the day how easy it was for them to snap a picture with a Kodak!
Once again I have to send out a big thank you to my friend George Dunbar who emailed me a thoughtful reminder of the popularity Kodak had with its “Kodak Girl” who was featured in advertisements, in house brochures, and consumer catalogues. The Kodak Girl always had a camera in hand and usually showed how it was used. She was updated from time to time so she was always a fresh face for each generation of camera buyers. The Kodak Girl advertisements lasted well over half a century.
Graphic 35 ad
Sept 1956 Pop Photo
Toronto. In 1955 Graflex entered the 35mm market with their own brand calling the camera a Graphic 35. This was a few years after the first foray into 35mm film territory when Graflex bought out the Ciro camera company.
The camera used two marketing strategies: two handed focus buttons, a set up that, like Ford’s Edsel automobile, used a unique way to operate a major function – in this case focussing the lens with camera body buttons rather than a ring on the lens itself. And secondly by hopping on the colour bandwagon.
The focussing buttons were never adopted by others – a telling opinion of the feature. In the early sixties, the Graphic 35 Jet came out. The buttons were still used to focus but they moved the focal plane instead of the lens to focus!
Thanks to George Dunbar for finding this advertisement from the September 1956 issue of Popular Photography.
Diana F+ “Love Letters”
Toronto. Another delightful newsletter by our editor Sonja Pushchak. Sonja’s newsletters have themes – this issue mixes Valentine’s Day with Black History month.
She begins with a backgrounder on the song Paper Moon – a riff on Valentine’s Day. Next up is a wonderful introduction to our next speaker, Dr Julie Crooks whose talk will celebrate Black History month as does page three on the Scurlock Studio in Washington DC and page four on a Toronto Exhibition called Rich and Poor at the RIC featuring photographs by Jim Goldberg.
This is followed by an update to an earlier story on pre photographic use of lenses by oil paint artists. David does a comparison of a new Samsung smartphone camera and a “Y2K” vintage Olympus digital camera. Louise tosses in her always interesting Web Talks column (with live links). In Photo History, Sonja discusses Kara Walker and Shadows on the Wall, a modern take on the pre photographic tool, the silhouette, this time using obviously Black antebellum scenes and images.
All the above plus ads and posters make this another very readable issue. Click here or on the Diana F+ icon to read and print.
Exakta 3D ad from the
September 1956 issue
of Popular Photography
Toronto. In the 1950s, stereo made one of its periodic rises to the conscious mind of the common man. Books. cameras, attachments and movies touted the impressive 3D imagery. I remember seeing a 3D movie one Sunday starring Vincent Price in a theatre on the Main in Montreal.
Leitz had a number of 3D accessories for its cameras including the tiny Stereoly prisms that attached to its screw mount cameras (I have a Stereoly and arm in its original leather case).
But none of the special 3D cameras or accessories could compare with the Exakta and its 3D accessories. With a suitably equipped Exakta, one could view a scene in 3D before it was snapped! Of course, your eyes see in 3D too …
My thanks to George Dunbar who sent along this September 1956 Popular Photography ad for the Exakta V and VX accessory prisms and 3D viewer. Later cameras like the VXIIa or the Varex branded models could also use the 3D accessories.
Sept 1956 Pop Photo ad
ad for the Leica M3
Toronto. In 1954, Leitz finally began selling the famous M3 camera. The design was radically different than the screw mount cameras, adding many features that other makers had adopted. The Bayonet Mount still exists today (over 60 years later) in the Leica’s digital cameras. Rudimentary design began during WW2 as Leitz realized the screw-mount era was fast ending and a much newer and improved design was needed.
My thanks to member George Dunbar who sourced this beautiful Leitz NY ad for the M3. It appeared in the September 1956 issue of Popular Photography to explain the new M3 and why it was uniquely a Leica through and through.
The camera caught on and became the choice of professionals and advanced amateurs world-wide long after the SLR design took over the 35mm film camera.
EVENTS
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Stan White – Poems & Photos
Mise Au Point – sur la photographie Quebecois
