people, places, things

Posted on November 20, 2023 by Robert

People, Places, Things exhibition at Stephen Bulger Gallery

Toronto. The Stephen Bulger Gallery is hosting an exhibit from November 18, 2023 to December 23, 2023 of people the gallery represents and more.

Stephen writes, “Our exhibition will contain highlights of work made by the artists and photographers the gallery represents, as well as a selection of secondary market items owned by the gallery, and the many consignors who entrust us with finding new homes for the photographs that have enriched their lives.

“The collection of photographs spanning over 150 years includes works covering a variety of genres, processes, and intent. Acknowledging photography’s ability to provide masterworks at many levels of quality, photographs will be priced to fit a variety of budgets. Photographs will be available to purchase and collect before the exhibition closes in recognition of the holiday season.”

For those PHSC members in southern Ontario who collect photographs, this will be a great opportunity to augment their collections.

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fingering the press

Posted on November 19, 2023 by Robert

Photo of Lady Diane by Alison Jackson courtesy of Westlicht

Toronto. An honourable branch of photography is news photography. While many news photographers work for a specific newspaper or agency, many are  free lance. Of the group, a small subset caters to shooting celebrities incessantly and trying to flog the results to gossip magazines or the yellow press. Collectively, such photographers are known as  ‘paparazzi’.

The term ‘paparazzi‘ means ‘mosquitoes’ in Italian slang. Victims of paparazzi try their best to avoid or lose these pesky nuisances but not always with success – witness the deadly consequence such an attempted evasion had on Diane.

WestLicht in Vienna is featuring photographs by paparazzi in an exhibition of the same name from Nov 24 this year through to February 11, 2024. Have a look at the site.

 

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name game

Posted on November 18, 2023 by Robert

the name game – a Leitz ‘Xenon’ with a Taylor-Hobson Patent number

Toronto. Shortly after the Leica was first marketed, Leitz standardized the lens-to-film distance and offered a group of interchangeable lenses suitable for any camera. To compete with the Johnny-cum-lately CONTAX by the mighty Zeiss factories, Leitz looked to others to complement their line of lenses. It looked to Schneider for a fast f/1.5 50mm lens.

The Xenon was offered from 1936. Marked Leitz, it used the Schneider Xenon name. In all, a bit over 6,000 were made including around 165 or so in 1936. Exported lenses were marked with the Taylor-Hobson patents (some British and US; other US only).

In 1949, a few years after WW2 ended, A redesign of the lens was named Summarit and the Schneider designation of Xenon was dropped. About 65,000 lenses of this newer design were made (including the bayonet mount version of nearly 40,000) until it was discontinued after 1969.

Come out to Sunday’s auction – you may get the 1936 Xenon lens (in beautiful condition)  for your own collection!

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executive meeting No 41 by ZOOM

Posted on November 17, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. The executive meeting  Wednesday evening, November 1st, 2023, was the 41st held via ZOOM. A small group of us met for a pleasant and productive session (Psst, please note our membership year now ends next month, December 31st).

Our November newsletter (under new editor Katrin Faridani) is being written. Remember, if you prefer a personal copy of the newsletter but haven’t yet joined the PHSC, drop me an email at news@phsc.ca and I will add you.

As to a new Membership Secretary, drop me a note to forward to Clint if you can help as a volunteer (in this or possibly any other executive position, or at any of our events). Use this email address: info@phsc.ca.

Our next Toronto meeting will be our November Auction this Sunday.  The Estate auction in September was very successful, and we have more estate lots on hand to do a sequel this month. With Clint’s skilled camera work, we now have 193 of those lots on the web along with a pdf version of the lot descriptions.

a few lots at our Estate Auction/Toronto Monthly Event this Sunday, Nov 19th.

Co-editor David Bridge gave us an overview of the status and the present work in progress on the next issue of our journal. A draft version was just released recently for proofing. Well done David!  It should be noted that both David and his partner, Louise also wrote articles for this edition (ps – the new green trim is awesome).

We are currently updating out MailChimp data. If you are a It is important to us that you are notified for each new journal edition. If you are a member but DO NOT see a notification for any journal since you registered/renewed, please email me at info@phsc.ca.

As I noted before, like many other societies, the online pdf-only version of our journal will remain. PS. Gary Perry held his CAMERAMA show November 12th, and is planning to hold the next one on February 2nd, 2024. How time flies!

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moon shot

Posted on November 16, 2023 by Robert

test unit of the first telescope on the moon – including a film cartridge

Toronto. The year my first child was born, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. It was an exciting time for all. And photography proved its worth by capturing space images on the moon, not earth.

Years earlier, I learnt in school that the biggest challenge we faced to reach the moon and planets was to get enough speed/power to break free of earth’s gravity and atmosphere.

My good friend, George Dunbar, in his pursuit of photographic history came across this telescope used to film images from a base on the moon.

George writes, “The first telescope used on another world was the lunar surface camera designed by George Carruthers of the Naval Research Laboratory, one of the few African American scientists to work on Apollo. The Smithsonian has a qualification test unit with the actual film cartridge brought back from the Moon.”

Appropriate music for this post would be Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata – one of the first classical pieces I ever heard. It is played here by Kassia.

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I’se the b’y that writes the book …

Posted on November 15, 2023 by Robert

Fishing Village by A C Shelton, c1941

Toronto. In 1949, Newfoundland and Labrador formed the last and 10th province of Canada, Joey Smallwood as head of Newfoundland negotiated the transfer of this beautiful and rugged land from England control to Canada. 1941 saw a brief history with photographs written by A C Shelton and published by E P Dutton in NYC. The book was archived by Memorial University in St John’s and was discovered by my good friend, George Dunbar.

George writes, “Some photographs of Newfoundland by Alfred Cooper Shelton, from his 1941 book, ‘Newfoundland Our North Door Neighbor‘.”

The illustrations were selected by Shelton from photographs he took. Once again photography expands our knowledge and understanding of history! Click the link and enjoy the pre-confederation history of our 10th province (I spent a time in Labrador in the late 1950s).

NB. The title of this post is a riff on a line in an old Newfoundland jig that I like, “I’se the b’y” sung here by the Great Big Sea.

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twin views

Posted on November 14, 2023 by Robert

view cameras – lot 823 at auction this Sunday

Toronto.  My earliest activity on the camera collecting front was an old view camera like this – no shutter, no lens – in a small suitcase. The junk shop in Toronto was delighted to see it out the door. The maker was Rochester Optical (later absorbed by Kodak) and manufacture was around 1900.

Years later in the Montreal suburb of Dorval. An associate of mine gave me an old lens and a lens and shutter (UNICUM) combination.   Mounted on a lens board I made, the lens/shutter combination was a perfect match for the old view camera.

If you hanker for one to use or collect, drop by our auction this Sunday. Remember, the cameras shown here are just ONE lot of around 200+ going under the hammer. Free parking and food, Don’t miss it!

PS. The title of the post is a riff on a 1990s TV series called, “Twin Peaks“.

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three for the money …

Posted on November 13, 2023 by Robert

back and top view of Leica III

Toronto. … and four to go,  as the old rhyme says.  And by go we mean drop by our November 19th Estate Auction. One of the lots will be a Leica III just waiting for a new home. This little 1933 gem is black enamel and gutta percha with nickel trim.

The letter ‘O’ at the top of the lens mount indicates that any interchangeable lens with a Leica screw-mount thread is suitable. This camera has very little brassing and the odd scrape, especially what looks like a tripod mark on the baseplate.

Made in 1933, it was one of about 111,o00 made. The viewfinder and rangefinder are very clear and clean. The rangefinder version of the Leica arrived on the market in 1932 with model II. A year later the model III arrived with improved optics for the rangefinder including a 1.4x magnification to compensate for the rather short finder base, and a diopter adjustment for those without 20/20 vision. The III was also the first focal plane shutter Leica with both fast and slow speeds built-in.

Visit the auction this Sunday and you may just grab this beautiful III for your collection!

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HOTP

Posted on November 12, 2023 by Robert

latest issue – hot off the press – notes

Toronto. Rita has another issue of PhotoEd almost ready to ship.

Rita offers the interesting details of this issue and other news here.

Have  gander and take pity on the moths by opening your wallet to subscribe!

Remember, while the journal title is PhotoEd, the articles are by and for photographers – students or amateurs or professionals .

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aid for the film brigade

Posted on November 11, 2023 by Robert

help for film fans

Toronto. I did a couple of posts earlier for those that are/want to try the old film technology (Attention Film Fans) and (An Easy Way to Try Film). Claudia Mac, the Assistant Manager at Downtown Camera (89 Queen St East) took the time to write me with a suggestion and a clarification on those posts.

Claudia writes, ” … I oversee the analog offerings here. … we are a Lomography dealer and a local Canadian company ready to sell their cameras and film.

“There was no reference to where you can purchase disposable cameras or where they can be processed in Canada.  It so happens that particular brand of cameras (Wedding Star) we have experience with as we have processed many of them and unfortunately, we have found they have taped film ends together causing jams in our processing machine and in the camera.  If it jams in the camera, it will be inoperable thus ruining opportunity to take analog images at the special event which normally is a wedding.

“We have invested in 2 dipDunk machines from Germany (1 BW and 1 colour) to ensure we have new film processing machines that can push and pull film.  We have a club to promote our analog offerings with discounts.  We sell 110, 127, 620, 4×5 and 8×10 film, we can process up to 4×5 but have made partnerships with other labs who can process the 8×10 film even Kodachrome.  We are also processing ECN2 still-film in house.  These are just some of the things we have done to strengthen ourselves in the analog field.”

I was not aware that any ‘bricks and mortar’ store in Canada carried the line. Possibly to lower costs, the makers ‘Wedding Star’ cameras use film ends. When I used one hour processing services years ago, any personal film joining by tape was a big NO NO. Downtown Camera can easily process your films for you too.

Not mentioned is the used gear they carry. A few decades ago I bought a Leitz Thambar fro Mike at Downtown camera’s old location a few doors closer to Yonge Street.

Please consider venturing downtown and check out Downtown Camera at 89 Queen East. Subway is your best bet as traffic and parking are a mess in Toronto downtown these days (I am forced to use taxi service now any time I head downtown from the west end near Mississauga).  PS. Don’t overlook our auction this November for film gear and collectibles.

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