Leica History

Posted on July 2, 2011 by Robert

A beautiful online history of the famous Leica Camera from inception to 2011 put together by Leica photographer and teacher Thorsten Overgaard of Denmark. Each month I browse our site statistics preparing a report for our executive. One of the pleasures of that task is tracing back random links to our site. This month such a chance trace took me back eventually to this charming post by Thorsten Overgaard. His Leica history currently covers three web pages beginning with Oskar Barnack and his earliest (pre Great War) experiments to create a miniature camera back in the days of large view and roll film cameras right up to this year when Leica Camera announced the M9-P, a variation on its very successful full frame digital M9 model. Visit Thorsten’s blog for many more interesting articles on photography and especially the Leica.

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Newsletter 11-2

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Robert

Newsletter 11-2 June 2011. CW from left: Cover, Spring fair photo essays, Images with tissue overlays, Portrait by Mary Spencer, Not a Leica, Research query from Fort Nelson, TPHS PhotoHistory XV, Shelton Chen's Karsh GBS copper printing plate.

Bob Lansdale’s latest newsletter for our 2011-2 membership year introduces Andrew Stawicki, our June speaker, reviews the fascinating talk Amanda Rataj gave last month on her experiences as an albumen print maker. This edition offers photo essays from our recent Spring Fair, A discussion about tissue overlays on the old albumen carded prints, a couple of queries for information and help from BC, one from Fort Nelson and the other from Summerland. And the announcement of PhotoHistory XV by our friends across the lake in Rochester. Click the image to read this issue.

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Early Leica goes for nearly $2M dollars!

Posted on May 29, 2011 by Robert

The 19th WestLicht camera auction held on the 28th of May and featuring 721 lots has broken many records worldwide: The highlight was lot number 1 with an estimated price of between 350.000 to 450.000 Euro. After a tough bidder battle starting at 200.000 Euro, lasting for 20 minutes, the highlight of the auction, the extremely rare Leica of the 0-series from 1923, sold for a staggering 1.320.000 Euro (USD 1.900.000) including premium. The bidder, a private collector from Asia, is with this buy the new owner of the most expensive camera ever sold worldwide. Click http://www.westlicht-auction.com/index.php?lang=3 to learn more about the auction and its lots and see a video of this bid.

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Pictures at the Fair

Posted on May 29, 2011 by Robert

Gary Blakeley and Shelton Chen holding WW2 aerial gun camerasGeorge Dunbar and Wayne Gilbert filled in for Bob Lansdale to record our Spring Fair this year. You can click the little image of Gary and Shelton to go to the snap-shot page, or you can just go to the “Spring 2011 Snap-shots” submenu of the FAIR tab in the navigation bar above.

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ZeitagTO – There’s an App for that…

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Robert

Copyright © Octavo Productions Inc., 2011Toronto, ON May 27, 2011. Gary Blakeley sent me a link to a Toronto Star article today about his new app ZeitagTO. This is a free app for Apple’s iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. ZeitagTO has a city map and some 500 historic pictures from the City of Toronto Archives. If you have an iPhone/iPad/Touch (and who doesn’t?) take a look at our city in the rear view mirror of our old photographers. Gary will be expanding the file of images for Toronto, GTA, and other cities. And yes, he plans an Android version too…

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Camera Traders Show

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Robert

Victoria, BC. Sunday, May 29, 2011. If you are in Vancouver or Victoria this weekend, drop in to the latest Camera Traders show in Victoria. Admission is FREE – details are on their website http://camera-traders.com.

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Amanda Rataj: Albumen Printing

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Robert

Amanda Rataj

Amanda Rataj is a photo-based artist who graduated in 2010 from OCAD University in Toronto. She became fascinated with albumen printing in a third year class on historical photographic processes taught by professor Barbara Astman. She brought examples of her albumen work. The prints are all on hand-made paper which is more tactile than traditional paper. She has written two articles for PhotoEd magazine including one on Albumen Printing in issue 25 (spring 2009). Amanda’s work has been exhibited in galleries – most recently at Xpace this past January. She is a member of Gallery 44 and teaches workshops on albumen printing. Continue reading →

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Andrew Stawicki

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Robert

NEXT TORONTO MEETING – Wednesday, June 15th, 2011
ANDREW STAWICKI: The PhotoSensitive Group
As the founding photographer of PhotoSensitive, Andrew has helped to create a unique and powerful ensemble of talented men and women who, through black-and-white photography, enrich, enlighten and educate Canadians on issues of social significance. Join us and learn about the social accomplishments of these Canadian photo volunteers.

The public is welcome.  Go to our Programs page for times and directions.

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Fun at the PHSC Spring 2011 Fair

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Robert

Laura

Laura Jones dropped me a note about her day at the fair yesterday.

“With help from three generations of our family, we stuffed an assortment of photographica from daguerreotypes, and ambrotypes; baby brownies and video cameras; to Ansel Adams note cards into boxes and headed to the Woodbridge Soccer Stadium to participate. Bennett, my son, and I spent many evenings spread over the last month talking about photography, deciding what to sell, what to keep, what to toss.”

You can read Laura’s full report at www.laurajones.ca.

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Heather Morton: Marketing in the Digital Age

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Robert

Heather Morton by Robert lansdale

Ms Morton is a Toronto based Art Buyer. “Art Buying refers to the act of securing still imagery for commercial use. In a nutshell, she helps advertising agencies and design firms find the right photographer or illustrator for their concept and manages the process of producing that image.
“The Art Buyer fulfills two important but different functions: On one hand, it is a creative role,  collaborating with the creative team to source the right creative supplier (it takes a keen interpretive eye combined with a comprehensive knowledge of current photography and illustration trends and styles). In a completely different way, an Art Buyer is also a Project Manager.” Continue reading →

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