Collections & Collectors

 I periodically receive announcements from the OstLicht Camera Auction site.  The most recent features 244 lots of antique and classic photographic equipment.  The big names are always well represented -- Leica, Contax, etc.  There are also many unique and obscure offerings.  This latest auction includes, unexpectedly, some Soviet-made cameras; Zorki, FED and Kiev which in the past have not often attracted the attention of the collector class

A. Rebora, Genova | Handcrafted 6x17cm Panorama Camera | Starting price: 2.400 €

I don't personally know anyone I would consider to be a serious collector of cameras.  My assumption is that bidders in the OstLicht auctions are not primarily motivated by the idea of making pictures with their acquisitions.  That perception is the basis for my claim that I am not a collector.

That claim by me likely leads to some skepticism when I admit to ownership of around a hundred cameras.  Still, I maintain my position with the thought that my primary goal is doing photography, along of course, with some curiosity and admiration for craftsmanship and history.   And, all of the cameras I have accumulated over the past quarter century have made pictures for me.

Aside from those personal inclinations, what got me started was mostly the appearance of digital photographic technology around the end of the previous century.  Near that same time, the launch of the Ebay auction site attracted the attention of people who discovered that their nearly forgotten old film cameras could be sold easily on a world-wide market to people like me who still valued analog techniques.  Many fine photographic instruments thus became available at prices that represented only a very small percentage of their original sale prices.

A small sample of my accumulated cameras occupies one end of my desk.  Many of those cost me less than $40, with the exception of a couple Nikons and Leicas.  

While I appreciate the build quality and the picture making capacities of the rangefinder and slr cameras in that corner, I think that in terms of actual satisfaction my experience with very simple cameras has really been more significant.  Box cameras like the Kodak Hawkeye Flash and the Ansco Panda along with some point-and-shoots like the Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim have accounted for the majority of images which I offer up on my blog and my Flickr account.

 

I must admit I still look in at the offerings on Ebay, Craigs List and Facebook Marketplace.  The bargains have become a little more rare, but it is interesting to see what prices are commanded for models I have in my collection, and nostalgia for some unwise past sacrifices is sometimes a source of temptation.  For instance, I sold a Bentzin Primarflex in the late 1960s for a pittance and have thought of replacing it many times.

What reigns in those acquisitive inclinations is mostly the fact that actually practicing my peripatetic  style of photography requires more mobility than I can often muster these days.  Walking the dog a couple blocks is close to my upper limit.

So, that's my story.  What's yours?

Abq Autumn

Trees

 The best photography I've seen in some time showed up this morning in an email from Lens Culture.  This issue of the online magazine features the work of Irani photographer, Mehrdad Fathi.

The Burning of Autumn is a selection of cyanotype prints nestled in matchboxes.  As the article introduction says: 

"A single match can destroy an entire forest—and in Mehrdad Fathi’s haunting cyanotypes, the humble matchbox becomes a vessel for remembering what we stand to lose."

The project is beautifully conceived and executed.  It also looks to have been great fun.

My History With Leica

 These were the three best images from a roll of Kentmere 400 shot in my Leica IIIa during a walk in Old Town and a visit to the VM coffee shop and the adjacent vintage sign and vehicle collection.

 My IIIa Leica was a body-only purchase from ebay.  I shot it for a while with Soviet M39 lenses, which was really fine.  Still, I thought it would be nicer to shoot the camera with actual Leica lenses, so I eventually found a good local deal on a IIIc with a 135 Hektor and a 3.5/50 coated Elmar.  I didn't keep the Leica IIIc long because I prefered the simpler construction of the IIIa.  The Hektor telephoto just seemed too awkward in use,  and I ultimately gave it to a friend.

I have made a lot of pictures with the 3.5/50 Elmar over the past six years and it has become a great favorite because of the consistent brilliance of its performance.  

Getting Started

 My first camera was a gift from my family, a Kodak Baby Brownie Special.

 I think that by the time I received that gift I was already enamored by the idea of becoming a photographer.  My next camera, also a gift, was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash.  The first I bought for myself near the end of high school was an Argus C3.

 All of those cameras were perfectly adequate as image makers, though you wouldn't guess that from the pictures I made at the time.  What was lacking in my early efforts was not proper equipment, but rather some guidance from someone with expertise and some teaching skills -- in other words, a mentor.  I'm sure I was in proximity to such a resource many times over the years, but I never really developed the skill of establishing the necessary relationships.

What got me thinking along these lines was an article I came across in the Santa Fe New Mexican about Santa Fe Preparatory School photography teacher Sarah Meghan Lee.  Before she became a darkroom instructor at the school she was a photojournalist and photo workshop leader.  Those credentials are impressive, as also are her comments on photography's history as reported the the article, which by the way was written by one of the school's students.

What an extraordinary opportunity is available to those prep school students! 

Rainy Day

The last of New Mexico's monsoon weather.

 

A Solid Performer

 Reading people's accounts of discovering and using the Argoflex Forty, the consistent theme found in  all is the surprising excellence of the images from this fundamentally simple camera.  What is often overlooked is the quality of the camera's design and construction.  That is especially apparent if this 1950s Argus is compared to the many earlier pseudo-tlr cameras.  Some of my pre-war brilliant-screen cameras make nice images too, but their metal bodied construction seems very flimsy compared to the solidity of the bakelite Argoflex.