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Salzburg, Austria

"No place is boring if you've had a good night's sleep and a pocket full of film." - Robert Adams
​
"Tea first, then photography..." - Philip Lee Harvey

From an Article written by Philip Lee Harvey

You press the button; We do the rest

11/26/2021

2 Comments

 
Picture
My purpose built darkroom in Houston.
George Eastman, a business man, not an artist, not a scientist but a true capitalist is the person who transformed photography.  Sure we can look at Louis Daguerre or Henry Fox Talbot as the scientist and hobbyists that were the fathers of photography to see an influence.  But if these two men were the fathers, Eastman was the neighborhood bully that transformed photography into what it is today.

As a photographer, one question continues to come up. Were the changes ushered in by Eastman good for photography?  Let me explain.

"You press the button; We do the rest" was the slogan that Eastman used to explain the amazing transformation that he brought to photography.  Imagine that prior to his industrialization of the dry plate process, photography was all wet plate, forcing the photographer to adapt tot he limitations of their tools, keeping them close to their darkroom (a wet plate dries in 10-15 minutes and must be exposed before it does). It was cumbersome and dirty.

Eastman changed that by finding a repeatable way to make consistent dry plates that could be sold.  This then took him to the advent of the film backed emulsion simplifying the process further.  So you could buy a camera, preloaded with film, shoot a bunch of pictures and then mail the camera back to be processed, printed and refilled with more film.

But this simplicity, democratized a process so that anyone with the spare income could take pictures of their very own.  The problem is that photographers were attempting to define this as an art form, and as all of us know, art should be hard, artists should be few and talented.  By reducing photography to the push of a button, eliminated any hope of these early photographers to define their art in the same way painting, sculptures and music composition was defined.  

Today, with the advent of Digital Photography (also a legacy Kodak the company that Eastman founded) we have been ushered into a new era where the photographic process has been simplified even further. Has this impacted the quality of art which is produced?  Well now we get into the subjective discussion, but in my view it has impacted the quality of art a great deal.  It has improved it.

And this is what makes my perspective of film and digital photography different than most I have seen.  Film photographers like myself, typically bemuse the artificial quality, speed over substance and convenience over art.  I see something very different.  What I  see is a tool, usually a cell phone these days, that is converting everyone into an artist.  This tool allows us to tap into our imagination and create new photographs.  

Is everyone who wields a smart phone with a camera an artist?  No, but they have the tools to leverage their imagination to make new work and some of this work challenges the way we see the world and this, at its very core, is art.  Does every photograph matter?  No, but they never did.  Are we dumbing down the artistic medium of photography?  No.  If you think making art with a camera phone is easy, try it yourself.  We are just giving everyone the opportunity to create and this is an essential part of art.  Create, something individual, challenge the way we see ourselves and the world around us.  

​
2 Comments
Alan Rishel
11/30/2021 01:12:03 pm

Hello, Patrick!

A friend of mine just picked up a fine Argus 75 from, as he tells it, "a group of hippies with a table of antique items on the front yard they were just giving away." We are located in Baltimore, not that that fully matches what may be your goto mental image of a Baltimore neighborhood demographic.

I quickly searched for the lowdown on this TLR and found your perfectly suited website with a well crafted historical recounting of this gem that includes actual photos knowledgeably critiqued. Thanks for a perfect article for my serendipitous friend! (He said the camera was the most well preserved item which was the extent of his assessment to decide what item to take.)

As for me, I was created at pretty much the midpoint of the Argus 75's creation run. This allowed me to enroll in Photography & Advanced Photography in college using the trusty Minolta XG-7 we had purchased in 1974, in the era when Pan-X & Tri-X were in common use. After 25+ years, the dense foam gasket sealing the back door had dry rotted (certainly fixable) and a vertical light leak dead center in the frame was unfindable. Considering it had done around 100 days of brutal high altitude backpacking, it had impressive durability. In class, the TLR technology was included in the historical review of the medium and so the Argus was a recognizable object that I could explain to my friend its pedigree. It has a loaded roll of film of unknown disposition aside from indicating seven exposures having been taken and I love investigating found undeveloped film! The knob to turn the take up spool is broken/missing but there is enough of the metal shaft to turn it by the two flat bevels the knob used to grip. On my way to being a physicist at that time and a lifelong myopic observational astronomer, I know optics well, with some chemistry stirred in. Accepting a single index meniscus lens as a solution would send today's optical engineers into a psychotic state of no return! I have also met others my age that have the same enduring fondness for the captivating acrid citrus aroma of a pan of fixer!

Your resulting photos certainly show defocusing aberration for the off axis rays up to ¼ of the width inside the border. The tree branches get incredibly smeared against the uniform background sky. I haven't shoot at f/13 in a long while but am I right in thinking that even the lack of sharpness on axis is from the optics and not the 400 speed film? ISO 400 for the 56mm width wouldn't look this grainy on my smart phone, I imagine. Thoughts? It's too bad you ended up shooting on what looks like an overcast day. There aren't many quality maximum contrast edges to evaluate.

Thanks again Patrick, I love your website & LOVE your compositions, but that's for another post! There will always be a place for black & white photography.

cheers,

Alan

Reply
Patrick
12/6/2021 05:03:04 pm

Alan,
Thanks for the wonderful message! The Argus is a nifty little gem and great fun to shoot. You are correct in your assessment of the lens quality and the impact in higher contrast items away from the center of the lens. But to your point, optical engineers are built to seek perfection but as photographers we can be more forgiving. About a year ago I purchased a Rolleiflex TLR and have been playing with it. The lens is much closer to perfection than that little Argus but it is not as much fun to shoot with. I will have to post an page in that camera.

I can’t say that I know Baltimore at all. I would be hard pressed to come up with an image so I will assume the streets are lined with gentlefolk selling wonderful photography gear at astonishingly accessible pricing!

I am thrilled you like to site. Would you care to contribute an article? Would love to see what you like to shoot!

Reply



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    Patrick...confirmed film & digital photography addict.

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  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Vintage Cameras
    • Argus 75
    • Brownie Flash II
    • Contax G2
    • Ensign Selfix 820
    • FED-1 (PE0320)
    • Graflex Crown Graphic
    • Ihagee Exa
    • Leica M6
    • Nikon S2
    • Nikon F
    • Nikon F2
    • Nikon F3
    • Nikon FA
    • Olympus OM-1
    • Olympus OM-2 SPOT
    • Olympus Stylus
    • Pentacon Six
    • Pentax Spotmatic IIa
    • Rollei 35
    • Voigtlander 15mm ver III
    • Yashica C
    • Zeiss Ikon Nettar 515/2
  • Learning Composition
    • The Monochrome Diaries
    • Single & Multi Elements
    • Symmetry
    • Keep the Right Strong
    • Framing
    • Color in Composition
    • Deep Dive Bubble Man
    • Photo Assignments
  • Darkroom Lessons
    • Building a Sink
    • Air Ventilation
    • Analyser Pro
    • Development Hints
    • Primer for Film Photography
    • Bulk Loading Film
    • Pushing & Pulling Film
    • Color Development
    • Digital Contact Sheets
    • Stick to One Film Stock?
    • HP5+ Shot at 200 ISO
    • HP5 Shot at 1600 ISO
    • HP5 Shot at 3200 ISO
    • Medium Format
    • Washing Film
    • Split Grade Printing
    • Using Distilled Water in Film Development
    • Darkroom Paper
    • Foma100 EI 400
  • Photography Books & Films
    • Colin O'Brien
    • Lartigue Life in Color
    • Magnum Contact Sheets
    • Top Photography Movies
    • William Eggleston's Guide
    • Helen Levitt
    • Sally Mann Immediate Family
    • Saul Leiter Early B&W
    • Leica 100 yrs
    • Calendar Days of Asaya Hamaya
    • The Decisive Moment
    • Regarding Women
    • Robert Capa in Love and War
  • Single Image Deep Dive
    • Sergio Larrain "A Man After Dark"
    • Colin O'Brien 'Comings & Goings"
    • Erwitt Mother & Child
    • Man Running
    • Samuel Becket
    • Koudelka Wristwatch
    • Dovima with Elephants