[LargeFormat] Introductions

Mon Jan 20 10:49:34 2003

Quality (or rot) often comes with age.

--- Vincent Dobson <manitec@bellsouth.net> wrote:
> An interesting point to note from the post I've seen.
> 
> It seems that 90% of the people posting are in their 50's.  Perhaps
> it takes
> that long for us to discover LF.
> 
> 
> 
> Vince Dobson
> Visions In Nature
> www.VisionsInNature.com
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: largeformat-admin@f32.net [mailto:largeformat-admin@f32.net]On
> Behalf Of Curt Miller
> Sent: Sunday, January 19, 2003 11:46 PM
> To: largeformat@f32.net
> Subject: [LargeFormat] Introductions
> 
> 
> I'm 50 years old, was born and raised in New York City and have been
> making
> photographs since I was about 5.  With an active amateur photographer
> as a
> father (who also happened to work for Agfa-Gevaert for most of his
> working
> life), the bug bit me early.  Five of us lived in a one bedroom flat
> in
> Queens.  On Friday and Saturday nights my dad would pull the enlarger
> and
> trays and stuff out of the closet and set it up in our kitchen.  He'd
> go to
> town until late into the night...usually with me right there, in the
> way,
> watching.
> 
> I was usually allowed to develop some of the prints (in Dektol). 
> Back then,
> RC papers were still 15 years in the future, so ALL paper was what
> they now
> call fiber base.  We made our prints on some long-forgotten papers as
> Kodabromide, Medalist, Opal and Azo.  Later, when he worked for
> Gevaert, we
> used Gevagam, Portriga and Brovira.  Selenium toning was an in-thing
> back in
> the '50s and '60s, so most of our high quality work got toned.
> 
> I grew up with developers like the previously-mentioned Dektol.  For
> film, I
> used D-76, in the early years, switching to Rodinal in about 1965.
> 
> My favorite cameras were Rolleis.  My dad din't think much of 35mm at
> the
> time (though he did own a Leica IIIC), so I learned with medium
> format
> equipment.  When I outgrew the image quality of my 620 Brownie, my
> dad let
> me have a Rollei (which I still have - and sometimes use).
> 
> In 1967, I build my first serious darkroom in my parents' basement. 
> It was
> pretty elaborate, actually, and I started doing color work with my
> first
> sophisticated enlarger, an Agfa Varioscop 60 with colorhead.  I still
> have
> that machine (in nearly mint condition despite hard use over many
> years) and
> it's still an unbelievable piece of precision machinery with which
> it's
> roomates, a pair of Omegas (D3 and D4), can't compare.  My other
> enlarger
> (the 4th I have set up in my darkroom) is a wonderful (and also mint)
> Elwood
> 8x10.  This latter machine was stripped of its lighthouse and fitted
> with an
> Aristo T12 and 300mm Rodenstock Rodagon.  From this machine I get
> 2003 image
> quality from my 5x7 and 8x10 negatives.
> 
> To make my large negatives, I have four cameras: a 4x5 Crown Graphic
> that's
> been stripped (not by me) for use in the field, a 5x7 Wisner TF, an
> 8x10
> Wisner TF and a Hobo 8x10 "point and shoot."
> 
> I work in two distinct genres of photography: street work with 35mm
> (I have
> a bunch of Leicas) and landscape.  Since my friends know I'm a
> photographer,
> I am frequently enlisted to take wedding and Bar Mitzvah pictures. 
> For this
> work, I use either a Nikon F3 or F5.
> 
> I'm not going to get into my Rolleis and Hasselblads here since I
> rarely
> shoot MF anymore for either events or landscape.  It has mostly
> become my
> "forgotten format."
> 
> I live in Western Massachusetts and work in Albany, NY for the
> Education
> Department.  My professional training is in public administration and
> have
> an MPA from the Maxwell school in Syracuse.  I am the president of a
> local
> camera club and the vice president of the Adirondack Mountain Club,
> an
> environmental advocacy and outdoor recreation club with 36,000
> members,
> headquartered in Lake George, NY (and, every weekend when I'm up
> there, I
> look skyward and see "equivalents").  My wife gives anesthesia in the
> operating room in a hospital in Knoxville, TN (so I get to go visit
> the
> Smokie Mountains frequently).  I have four kids - mostly grown - and
> one
> granddaughter.
> 
> I worked for the late Stefan Lorant for the two years before his
> death 5
> years ago, making copy prints of his original page dummies for his
> autobiography.  I learned a lot from him.  What a guy.  He could
> still
> differentiate fine tonal differences between my prints at age 97!
> 
> My favorite "classical" photographers are Gene Smith, Ansel Adams,
> Edward
> and Brett Weston, Harry Callahan.  Contemporaries from whom I draw
> tremendous inspiration include Ralph Gibson, Joel Meyerowitz, my
> friends
> Shelby Lee Adams and Ralph Lieberman (a world class architectural
> photographer), and Michael Smith and Paula Chamlee, whose dedication
> to
> absolute perfection of the craft of photography is unmatched, in my
> opinion,
> by any other photographers alive or dead.
> 
> I need to go to bed now.  I'm doing a workshop in the morning on pyro
> development with my friend Ralph's students at Williams College (yes,
> I do
> expect to see Walker Evans' ghost in the photo lab there).
> 
> I think I'm a candidate for a twelve step program for photographers.
> 
> Good night.
> 
> Curt Miller
> Classic Photography by Miller
> B&W Photography (and colorful Bar Mitzvah pictures)
> 
> http://www.curt-miller.com
> 
> 
> 
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