Diane Arbus works join the AGO Collection

Posted on June 28, 2017 by Robert

5th Avenue Lady by Diane Arbus

Toronto. When I moved back home to Toronto in the late 1970s, I had an M4 and was very interested in photography. The main Etobicoke Library at Richview had a wonderful collection of coffee table sized photography books which I borrowed to learn about the masters of the art in the period from early to late 1900s.

One person was Diane Arbus of New York City. She had died in 1971, a few years before I discovered her intriguing photographs of the strange denizens of NYC. I recently read a blog from AGO and was  delighted to learn the Gallery had acquired 522 of the Arbus photographs from the estate of the late photographer.

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Modern Wet-Plate Photography

Posted on June 27, 2017 by Robert

Flight of the Bumblebees – Modern wet-plate photo by Yvette Bessels

Toronto. On June 23 I posted a note about the site Modern Day Antique mentioning that when the PHSC began in the mid 1970s, antique technologies were the really old technologies. At our June Toronto meeting we celebrated Canada’s 150th anniversary a bit early with five speakers covering the 150 year era of photography from wet-plates to roof toppers.

The first speaker was Yvette Bessels who covered modern day wet-plate photography. A photographer in her own right, Yvette has worked with modern day wet-plate media for a few years now. Her web site includes instructions and a very candid look at the pit falls that can occur to a beginner – even during the seemingly simple task of glass cutting. She also offers the beginning wet-plate photographer a reading list and an alternate web site – Collodion Bastards: Wet Plate Work of Questionable Parentage.

If you have the urge to try your hand at the wet-plate photography of a century and a half ago (when Canada was formed, in 1867) then take a look at Yvette’s site and that of Gerald Figal who runs the Collodion Bastards site.

As a side note, our logo was initiated by the late Everette Roseborough for the Photographic Canadiana journal. It is a copy of a steel plate engraving of a wet-plate photographer in the 1850s with a 100 pound back pack containing his camera, lens, tripod, darkroom tent, chemicals, and paraphernalia needed to make and develop his glass plates on site.

Our speakers on wet-plate have included Blake Chorley “Blake Chorley visits the Rockies“, The Tintype Studio, Amanda Rataj “Albumen Printing“, Maayan Kasimov and Rob Norton “Ambrotypes – History and Modern Production“, and Mark Osterman & France Scully Osterman “Reviving a Lost Art – The Collodion Journal” to mention a few.

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McKeown’s Camera Guide (online version) is progressing!

Posted on June 26, 2017 by Robert

MckCamera-smToronto. Jim McKeown, co-author of McKeown’s Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, emailed me Sunday (yesterday) that the massive online update to his reference guide for camera collectors will  soon be ready for testing. The new title is “McKeown’s Camera Encyclopedia and Price Guide”, reflecting the detailed information included of camera makers, addresses, models, and dates.

Jim said in his email, “The first test version of the web edition should be ready within a few weeks; we are waiting for the webmaster’s final touches.  We will send out an official announcement to all who have responded to our web questionnaire. We encourage your members [PHSC] to sign in, as that is the only way we will make announcements and accept subscriptions.” The initial online test version will be all manufacturers with names that begin with A. Both text and images will be tested.

Jim notes that once the bugs have been shaken out of the full online version (i.e. feedback of errors and inaccuracies), the hard copy will go to press. On March 15th last year, I mentioned this long awaited update is underway with the editors targeting release some time late in 2016. Used/new copies of the single volume 2004 edition (for 2005-6) are presently offered on Amazon at sometimes eye-popping prices. The arrival of the newest four volume edition sounds like a tasty Christmas present for collectors.

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New Archive of Globe and Mail Photos

Posted on June 25, 2017 by Robert

People board buses on Yonge above Eglinton. in this John Boyd photo

Toronto. Many well known photographers worked for and sold photographs to the Globe over the years. Now with the help of the folks from the Archive of Modern Conflict (AMC), a selection of the images will be available at this link for subscribers. The icon at left is by John Boyd. [please see correction below]

The Globe article begins, “As part of the Globe’s Canada 150 celebration, (the Globe hits 173 this year), we’ve pulled an eclectic selection of photos that range from a 1901 picture of the Forester’s Arch being erected on Bay and Richmond streets for a royal visit to a Canadian astronomical discovery in the late 1990s.

“You can search the archive by date or Globe photographer, and there are special collections that cover different aspects of Canadian life. A unique feature of the archive is that it shows both the front and back of the photos, providing an unedited look at the newspaper’s graphics process.”

A big thank you to member and past Photographic Canadiana journal editor, Doug Gilbertson, for suggesting this link. While I do read the Globe daily, for some reason I missed this important article. Well done, Doug! Continue reading →

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New lensless technology

Posted on June 24, 2017 by Robert

Caltech’s experiment in imaging using an optical phased array instead of bulky glass lenses

Toronto.  Even before 1839, optical houses created various lenses from glass for the apparatus of the day. After 1839, lens design and quality became the defining factor of camera quality.

Most optical institutes such as Zeiss provided lenses to a multitude of makers. Some institutes however, offered only a few lens designs of reputedly superior quality. For example, Leitz created for its Leica what they claimed were high quality lenses. When the bayonet model Leicas were introduced after the second war, lenses were named for their widest aperture. A summicron was f/2 for example, and came in various focal lengths. In later years Leitz added -M for lenses designed for their bayonet cameras and Apo- for lenses that brought three primary colours into a flat image plane. Continue reading →

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Modern Day Antique(s)

Posted on June 23, 2017 by Robert

Portrait from Modern Day Antique in Ohio

Toronto. In this age of digital photography we tend to think of antique technology as using film processes, especially in black and white that dates back to the 1880s and Kodak. When we first began, antique technology was really old processes – daguerreotypes, calotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, glass wet plates, glass dry plates, etc . A couple of members (now deceased) used to offer portraits using old techniques, simulated or real. Even today, our past president, Dr Mike Robinson, will do you a likeness in a modern-day daguerreotype, right in his studio in Toronto. Others locally will make you a tintype portrait.

Last Wednesday evening, we had a great meeting celebrating Canada’s 150th anniversary (arriving less that a couple of weeks from now). Five speakers did a brief review of photography from the old days of wet plate up to modern day roof topping with a DSLR and pure nerve. One of the audience members was Werner Drechsel. Werner served on the executive some years back before work demanded his full attention again.

The following day, Thursday,  Werner suggested this web site to me: Modern Day Antique.

Michael Rhodes in Medina Ohio runs this site plus a traditional portrait/wedding studio. At Modern Day Antique he offers classes, modern replicas of union cases,  and old fashioned portraits…

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Art and Industry Exhibit at the AGB

Posted on June 22, 2017 by Robert

Steve Roberts at Westinghouse c1964 by Tom Bochsler

Toronto. Thanks to our editor Bob Lansdale for this heads up. Member and past speaker Tom Bochsler has an exhibition of his photographs in the exhibit titled “Art and Industry” at the Art Gallery of Burlington. Tom and his associate Bob Chambers have done a few presentations at the PHSCs monthly meetings.

The AGB exhibition celebrates Tom’s career in industrial photography and his book “The Art of Industry“. For the exhibition, Tom and artist Jim Eller (the art segment of the exhibition) have combined forces – Tom with his photographs and Jim with his paintings.

The exhibition opened on June 6th and runs to July 4th. Tom’s talks at thePHSC took place both after and before his book of photographs was released. I have a copy handy on my bookshelf. Note that Tom talked to us even more recently about remembrance day and his recent experiences in Europe.

The exhibition over the next two weeks is well worth the time – as is your personal copy of Tom’s book! “Art of Industry”

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Hartman at the Art Gallery of Hamilton

Posted on June 21, 2017 by Robert

Hartman at the AGH – June through December 2017

Toronto. Stephen Bulger sent me an email yesterday announcing the exhibition “The Artist’s Studio”  by Canadian Artist Joseph Hartman at the AGH.

Exhibition Dates: June 17 – Dec 31, 2017 (For ticket information click here)
Opening Reception: Tuesday, June 27th, 5:00-7:30pm (free to the public)
Location: Art Gallery of Hamilton, Gallery Level One
Co-curated by Melissa Bennett & Alana Traficante

“The artist’s studio can be a sacred place, a vacuum, a social gathering site, a habitat of personal anguish, or growth – sometimes all these things at once. It is an intimate space where an artist creates the objects that will publicly represent their practice – the factory where work is made and sometimes too, the stage that presents it. For all its complex ingredients, the studio is essentially a portrait of the artist.

“Spanning nearly five years of work by Hamilton-based photographer Joseph Hartman, “The Artist’s Studio” is an exhibition of large-format photographs of studio interiors, shot around the country. These photos provide rare behind-the-scenes views into the production spaces of some of Canada’s most well-known contemporary artists (such as Pierre Dorian, Robert Davidson, Wanda Koop, Duane Linklater, Kent Monkman, Mary Pratt and John Scott) alongside more emerging practices. The exhibition coincides with the release of a full-colour catalogue, featuring over 100 images from the photo project, a curatorial essay, and interview with the artist (Black Dog Publishing, 2017).”

 

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Someone Figured Out a Process For Developing Kodachrome Film In Color

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Robert

Kelly-Shane Fuller does Kodachrome in colour in 2017

Toronto. I spotted this brief article on the Popular Photography page. As most people know, the last processing facility for this epic film closed back on December 30th, 2010.

Apparently many photographers knew you could still develop Kodachrome in say D-76 to make a black and white negative. Kelly-Shane Fuller, a photographer in Portland OR, however, has managed to bring out colour as well. He says the colour is accurate although much less saturated than normal.

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Robot Bomb Hit taken by Graflex Camera

Posted on June 19, 2017 by Robert

A May 1945 ad in Popular Photography for the Speed-Graphic and other Graflex cameras.

Toronto. My friend George Dunbar enjoys browsing the web in search of photographic memorabilia. He recently discovered this Popular Photography for May, 1945 advertisement for a Speed-Graphic. The camera caught the effect of a V1 buzz bomb or doodlebug on a building in southern England. The V2 version of these bombs or rockets (German V2 rocket) arrived fairly late in the war. Both the V1 and V2 managed to do some devastating damage when they connected across the channel (the south eastern English coast was mostly hit by V1s).

Ironically, the war in Europe ended that May when Germany  surrendered. This camera ad was prepared months earlier while the war was still underway although nearing its last days.

Note: The move from V1s to V2s took place late in 1944, so either the ad photo was taken before late 1944 and not released at the time, or the building was hit by a V2 rocket.

The design of the V2 led to the space accomplishments by the Americans a decade or two later. Like all good ads, it suggests it was the camera that made the excellent photograph…

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