According to Wikipedia, “Six degrees of separation is the idea that all people are six or fewer social connections away from each other. As a result, a chain of “friend of a friend” statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps. It is also known as the six handshakes rule.”

A couple of weeks ago I was reading a thread on one of the forums and reached out to a fellow traveler with a technical question about the Focomat 2C. He quickly got back to me and after a few private messages we shared email addresses and subsequently agreed to a Zoom. What a wonderful time I had! My new friend lives in the UK … and how about this … he happens to know my other photo buddy I recently met who also lives in the UK … and they live near each other and hang out together!!!  I had a follow up Zoom with my other friend in the UK and we’ve decided to all get together virtually in the near future. Sometimes the Internet can be a force for good!

My new friend invited me to attend a Zoom meeting of an informal group of photographers known as Zen. Very deep for sure. Actually, they’re named after a café in Vancouver, British Columbia where a few of them started to get together every week to kibbitz. They expanded to the US, UK and elsewhere, so now they meet weekly online!  On Friday I attended their meeting. Turns out I knew one of the members, Tom Abrahamsson’s wife Tuulikke of Rapidwinder and Softie fame, through phone calls, emails, and back and forth communications through this site. And how about this for a second time … another Canadian member of Zen had sold his Focomat IC enlarger to a broker in the US, who in turn sold it to me. Based on a few introductory remarks I made, he somehow guessed I was the one who bought it!! Damn!!

So, go figure … what’s the likelihood of all this? Six degrees of separation for sure!! As the song says it’s a small, small world after all, but I think it’s a small, small photographic world after all!! At least it seems to be for me these days. I’ve met some great people I would have never found and  have broadened my photographic horizons. I couldn’t be happier!!

Happy Holidays and my best wishes to you and yours.

Stay well,

Michael

As I previously wrote a little while back, I’ve been working with a diverse group of thirteen and fourteen year-old’s after school. A few had digital cameras, but most just used their mobile phones to make pictures. They didn’t talk very much and when they did they almost seemed to be whispering … polite but shy.   There were no grades and class didn’t cost anything, so they didn’t have to come if something else was going on or if they didn’t feel like it.  I got that.  Nevertheless I wanted to succeed with them and perhaps make a small difference in their lives. We did a number of activities including a photo walk and looking at other art, and I exposed them to resources that could continually inspire them as they went forward.  At the same time they were asked o make some photographs that would hopefully be printed digitally at home or at the local drugstore.

We started out with eight kids, but every week a different number showed up. Sometimes they brought prints, but usually they displayed what they did on their phones. Sometimes they did their “homework” assignments and sometimes not. I was always prepared to present something if they didn’t or there was some extra time to fill. I kept pushing on with whoever came to class.

On the last day when they were going to present their final group of pictures with a short written essay only three showed up. I sort of expected that so I wasn’t too disappointed. And I came prepared just in case I needed to fill some time. I brought pictures from a project I had done along with an accompanying essay to show and read if need be. Good thing I did.

But here’s the thing … those three kids either brought some prints or had a group of pictures on their phones that were a coherent whole.  And one of them who basically never spoke, out of nowhere decided to show us a number of really good drawings and paintings she had made. She photographed them with her phone and passed it around for us to see. When we had looked at art she made pictures of the paintings. Now I knew why. Ok, so she showed more drawings and painting than photographs.  Who cares … something made her decide to share her work with us!

I hope I got three kids to begin see the potential for photography … and other art … in their lives going forward.  One of the other kids said he wanted to make pictures then use them to create paintings.

Maybe I asked for too much and maybe that intimidated some of them. Maybe my expectations were too high.  Nevertheless, I’m satisfied with the outcome. Touching three kids that never made any meaningful photographs before, or causing in some small way one of them to show work she never shared before made it all worth it.

Stay well,

Michael

Two great photographers recently passed away within a week of each other. Elliot Erwitt and Larry Fink died on November 29^th and November 25^th. For the unfamiliar, these were two incredible photographers that also lived life on their own terms. I’m not going to go into the history of their long careers; you can find that all over the web. If you don’t know about these great photographers you need to learn fast!

Last year I bought Erwitt’s spectacular huge book Personal Best. As I’ve mentioned in a previous entry, it contains almost 446 photographs he personally selected as his best and favorite images from a lifetime of creative work. If you are serious about photography it’s a book you simply need to have! Sadly I don’t own any of Fink’s books; getting one had been a neglected item on my to do list.  But perhaps of greater importance, I got a chance to meet Larry several times during the last two years.  At the at the opening of Monalog’s first exhibit and that of his own show, both at the Stirner Modern Gallery, and at Nazareth Area High School, where he was working with the students and I was doing a class. A truly great guy, and FYI, the kids really loved him!

Here’s the thing … where will the Elliott Erwitts and Larry Finks be going forward when we need them. In today’s upside down world a little Elliot Erwitt would go especially well. We need some humor in our photography … and in life. Erwitt gave us that in spades! Here’s a quote: “I’m not a serious photographer like most of my colleagues. That is to say, I’m serious about not being serious.”  I like that!

So two more titans of photography who happened to be regular guys are gone. Sad. We need more top notch photography in today’s photo art world and frankly a lot less ego from those who simply can’t hold a candle to Erwitt and Fink.

I know there must be some good ones out there following or wishing to follow in their footsteps, I just haven’t seen very much of late. Who knows, maybe there are some young photographers about to take up the mantle, or whose work is waiting to be discovered like Vivian Maier … hopefully while their still alive!

In the meantime, I am grateful for Elliot Erwitt and Larry Fink and for all they gave us.

Stay well,

Michael

Last week after … well awhile … I finally made the first prints with my Leitz Focomat 1C and 2C enlargers. It seems forever since I first got them, but these beauties were just standing by until I first sourced and received all the missing bits, then figured out how to set up their pesky but brilliant autofocus systems, and finally got caught up with all my printing for the year with my admittedly easy to use Devere and Zone VI compensating timer. Now it was finally the moment of truth!

You might recall from an earlier post that I had removed my beloved Devere from my darkroom in order to force me to get on with using the Focomats. My neighbor helped me take it out, consigning it to a storage room elsewhere in the basement … removed but not too far away.

Out of sight, out of mind … right?

So how did that go? Using the Devere is like slipping on an old pair of comfy shoes or your favorite sweater. In no time it was back and put to use.

I agree that using the Devere this long is a lame excuse, but I knew it so well and my comfort level with it made me back off from trying something new while printing so many pictures under some self-imposed deadlines.

Okay, enough! Friday was my target. I decided to make things easy for myself by reprinting one recently made picture with each enlarger. My goal was to make close enough approximations in order to gauge how much I liked the work process compared to  that with the Devere, how the results matched up with the Devere and a Schneider Apo Componon HM lens, and finally a sense of how much I might miss using the Devere.

Here are a couple of key items for comparison/consideration:

Devere – Defusion light source.   Focomats – Light source in large domed housing(s) having a matt semi-silvered interior, directed onto the negative via single (1C) or double (2C) focusing condenser(s).

Devere – Color head allows for tiny incremental changes in contrast.  Focomats – Built in filter draw above the lens allows for use of Ilford or Kodak VC filters available in one half grade increments.

Devere – Manual focus using two large wheels for coarse and fine focusing located under the baseboard.  Focomats – Autofocus.

Devere – Allows the use of the second generation Zone VI compensating exposure timer with dry down function; enabling contrast changes “on the fly” without the need for making additional test prints.  Focomats – Does not allow for the use of the second generation Zone VI compensating exposure timer, but still benefits from the first generation Zone VI mechanical timer with dry down function; using different filters to adjust overall contrast requires new test prints.

Devere – uses Schneider Apo Componon HM lenses.  Focomats – uses the last and best Leitz enlarging lenses for 35mm (IC) and medium format (2C); the 60mm lens on the 2C is not a contender.

Devere – Uses glass negative carriers for best film flatness.  Focomats – Uses glass negative carrier (2C) and an anti-newton ring glass pressure plate to hold down one side of the negative (1C).

So let’s start with the 2C.  The beautiful glass negative holder allows for use of a variety of masks. I used the one for 6×7. Autofocusing was a dream. A test print was made using the grade 2 filter to match what I had done with the Devere print, exposure determined, and a work print made. Easy.

Now for the 1C. Not so easy. The negative I chose was at the end of the filmstrip and trying to get it to line up properly in the negative carrier prior to lowering the anti-newton ring pressure plate turned out to be a major pain in the rear. I’m sure I will get the hang of it for those instances; if I don’t I might have to resort to using a tiny piece of tape to hold the edge in place. Other than that everything went the same as with using the 2C.

Both prints benefited by using the built in dry down feature in the Zone VI timers.  The prints were washed and then placed on screens to dry overnight. The next morning I went downstairs and compared the Focomat prints with those made with the Devere.  The paper used was the same … Fomabrom Variant III … but there were differences. While the Devere prints were made using the color head equivalent to grade 2 (10 units of magenta) they looked a little different. Overall the Focomat prints looked crisper and perhaps a little clearer if that is possible, while not exhibiting any of the harshness of those made with typical condenser enlargers.

So what’s the takeaway of this first go around?  Giving up changing contrast on the fly will be something I’ll miss, as inserting and removing filters from the filter drawer is certainly not as convenient. But the autofocus is the bee’s knees!  The Devere is a tremendous and reliable enlarger, a real workhorse … the Focomats are well … they’re the Leica’s of enlargers!  Not the easiest or the most convenient to use … but … you know the story.

Stay well,

Michael

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mine was great, spent with my wife, children, grandchildren, and dogs.  To say I have a lot to be grateful for is truly an understatement … in art and in life.

But I also know the things we hold most dear and usually take for granted can easily be taken away.

So, please take a moment to think about this, especially as it relates to the one thing that enables us to do so much and to have so much … our democracy.

Let’s do all we can in this most important year ahead to be to make sure Thanksgiving 2024 is truly a happy one.

Stay well,

Michael

Several weeks ago I visited a new acquaintance to listen to his stereo (I’m somewhat of an over the top audiophile) and to look at some of his photographs made some fifty years ago.  The stereo sounded great but what really struck me were the wonderful images he had made. Some were framed on the wall, but most were confined to an old 8×10 Kodak Polycontrast paper box.

Here was a person that had real talent so what I saw and felt bothered me.

The pictures, made when he was in his twenties were sensitively seen and beautifully printed. It sounded like he had tried to make a go of it, but having a young family made that difficult. Like many his age he found a better way to make a living and stopped making photographs. I get that, but I can only imagine the work he might have produced had he continued on.

Sad.

I think he’s a few years younger than me, and still works like I do. He puts a lot of time and effort into his listening passion. So do I. I told him he should find some time to make images again; I didn’t care whether they were analog or digital. I just wanted him to get out there again and do what he’s capable of doing … for those that would be fortunate enough to see the work … but most of all for himself!

He’d lost all that precious time and missed the opportunity to create a meaningful body of work.

What could have been.

I think he could have found a way to keep photographing. I had to do the same thing. I know it’s difficult, yet possible. It’s a question of priorities like everything else in life.

Now it’s a question of what still could be.

I’ve told him several times that he should find the time and make pictures again. Easy for me to say, maybe not so easy for him to do … or want to do. I’ve offered to help, but I won’t bother him again.

He really wanted me to see his pictures. I guess that says something.

For all those of you with dusty old Polycontrast boxes underneath your bed, in the basement or the attic, go find them, take the old rubber bands off and have a good look at what’s inside. Once upon a time you really cared and had something you wanted to say. It’s not too late to finish what you started or say something new that matters … to you … to all of us.

Stay well,

Michael

Every week for the last month or so I have been working with thirteen and fourteen year old’s after school. No they don’t have film cameras!  A few have old basic digital cameras, but most come to class equipped with their mobile phones. No sweat, I’m just trying get them interested in learning about photography and making pictures. They’re very polite but don’t speak very often, so it’s been a bit of a challenge, but I feel I’m making more progress every week!

A couple of weeks ago it came time for the much anticipated outdoor photo walk. I had everything scouted out for some interesting pictures and was pretty jazzed about what I found!  Like my recent photo walk with older teenagers, the idea was to look for exciting opportunities that are usually passed by without a thought.

So off we went. The problem, or so it seemed, was that some of the things I thought were pretty spiffy appeared to be flat out uninteresting to them!  I would point out something I thought was cool and then say “so what do you think?”, only to get the deer in the headlights look, or a “nah”.

But was there was a silver lining that made the experience a success?

I realized that while I was trying to get them to think about making photographs of things I found interesting they were making photographs of things they found interesting! The more I thought about it, I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.

Then at class last week they showed me the pictures they had made on their phones.  As I looked at their pictures I noticed something very interesting … along with all the pictures of what they thought were interesting were some of what I thought were too!

Those sneaky kids!

I’m glad they made pictures of what they saw, as well as ones of what I saw.  And while there were some promising images of what I pointed out, the best ones were all theirs … and that makes me especially happy.

I hope I succeeded in getting them to begin to open their hearts and mind’s eyes to the vast array of photographic opportunities that will always surround them as they grow up.

They agreed I was on to something here … I know they are too.

Stay well,

Michael