Interview with Brian Wallis, Chief Curator of the ICP, NYC WeeGee Exhibit! FPP Meet-Ups and Events Announced! Pinhole Photography! Spotlight on the Bolsey B2 and More! Hosted by Michael Raso and Mat Marrash with John Fedele and Dane Johnson!
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Show Notes
Film Photography Podcast Episode 56 – April 1, 2012
The welcome back episode of the FPP after their Winter break! Hosted by Michael Raso, Mat Marrash, Dane Johnson, and John Fedele! And also featuring segments from Hunter White and Dan Domme! Topics on the table for the episode are Bolsey 35mm cameras, Kodak Box Cameras, Book of the Month, details on two photography exhibits, Kodak’s ProFoto XL 100, getting your pictures printed, listener letters and Pinhole Photography.
On April 14th, FPP Co-Host, Mat Marash will have a new show at the Aperture Photography Varity store in Clevland, OH, titled Dapper – A Distinct Photography Show. It all kicks off on the 14th at 6pm. For more details visit the Facebook Event Page, the FPP site, or the Aperture Store’s site.
FPP Man on the Street, Hunter White, brings in an interview with Brian Wallis from the International Center of Photography in New York City. Brian is the chief curator of Weegee – Murder is my Business, a show currently running at ICP. Weegee was a street photography and photojournalist from the 1930s and 1940s. The show focuses on his first ten years of his career mostly capturing the dirt, crime, grime of New York, and how he inspired the start of freelance photojournalism. The show runs until September 2nd, 2012 at ICP (1133 6th Ave at 43rd Street), details can be found at the ICP website.
Mat brings us his pick for book of the month: How to Read a Photograph: Lessons from Master Photographers by Ian Jeffrey. The book covers photographers from the early days of the craft in the 19th century up to the mid 1950s. It gives you a great resource to help identify photographers by their works, and offers up wonderful inspiration for black and white photography. It covers all forms, from fine art, street, landscape, and even photojournalism. The book is still available online through Amazon.
Dane Johnson shows off one of his latest cameras, a solid rangefinder from the 1940s, the Bolsey B2. The B2, introduced in 1949 uses a split window rangefinder for focus, and has Wollensak optics and shutter, a 44mm f/3.2 lens (ranges from f/3.2-f/22), and shutter speeds (Leaf Shutter) from Timed Release, Bulb, 10, 25,50,100, and 200. There’s no light meter, and no battery it’s all mechanical and built like a brick. More the Camera can be found here: www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/BolseyB2.html
Mat rolls in again with the importance of getting your photos printed! It’s time to get your film photos off the computer and onto paper, seeing the print itself is reward enough that it’s something that you created with your own hands. There are plenty of options out there for printing, the traditional Silver Gelatin method, VanDyke browns, Carbon Printing, and more! Your images will last, and will make an impression on anyone you show them off to.
Kodak’s ProFoto XL 100, a film designed for the International Market and offers saturated colors, great latitude for under exposing, good skintone, and generally a solid film all around. It can even be stored at room temperature without degrading. It was reviewed by Dan D and Alex L (that’s me), and is available from the FPP Store.
Dane again brings out an antique camera, a Brownie 2a, a box camera from the 1920s, (the 2a was originally released in 1907), takes 116 size film, but Dane has adapted it to take 120 film and even 35mm! You can find them for cheap on ebay, and there are some Brownie boxes that take 120 films naturally, and also 620 films. Most have shutter speeds at 1/35” to 1/40” and have fairly small apertures from f/11 to f/32, so even with a fixed focus lens your images will stay pretty much in focus.
Dan Domme introduced the FPP Underground Segment, kicking it off with Pinhole photography. Pinhole cameras take the idea of using a small aperture to give a larger depth of field to the extreme, often microns in diameter ensure that the entire image is in focus, the only tradeoff is that you have to work with longer exposures, seconds, minutes, hours even days, and months. It really depends on media you have loaded into the camera which you can use film and silver paper on. You can purchase cameras from a store, like Aperture Photography Variety Store, Leonardo, Zero Image, and Lensless. Or if you are of the DYI type, you can build your own, out of pretty much anything that’s hollow and can be made light tight. There are lots of online resources available to get you started: Mr Pinhole, flickr, and Eric Reener’s site. April 29th is Pinhole photography day!
above: Michael Raso introduces the Lomography LomoKino 35mm Movie Camera!
And what’s coming up for the FPP in the rest of 2012?
Movie production using LomoKino and Super 8, a UK Meet up and Aperture Tremont Weekend and the PDN show in October…and much, much more!