The large format camera is simply one more tool that photographers use--adapted from the same principles of light that we've talked about and experienced with vision, the camera obscura, the pinhole camera, the 35mm camera, and so on.
The biggest benefits to using the large format camera are film size and the movements. The film size is obviously much larger, so the detail you can achieve in your image is significantly greater. The movements are harder to explain, but we'll go over this in class and this video might help in showing what each movement does to change the look of the photograph in ways that you could never achieve with a 35mm camera or a standard DSLR (digital single lens reflex camera). Here is another.
Large format simply means that the camera uses a larger negative, paper, or sensor than standard or medium formats like 35mm or 120mm. The camera is larger and more cumbersome because of this, but many photographers use large format film because of the significant increase in detail that's possible with such a large negative. Many of them scan their film and print the images digitally--just like we'll end up doing!
Here are some photographers who we'll take a look at and who you can reference as we're working on this project:
Mary Ellen Mark - 20" x 24" Polaroid, PROM book and DVD
Rick Smith - 8" x 10" land camera
Chuck Close - 20" x 24" Polaroid camera
Sally Mann - 8" x 10" land camera (What Remains documentary)
Joel Meyerowitz - 8" x 10" camera
Nick Olson - 8" x 10" camera
Alec Soth - medium and large format cameras
J.A. Taylor - 4" x 5" camera
This is a photojournalism project. It's about telling a story with your photographs and, in this case, telling a story with one single image. I read about an assignment that Jane Evelyn Atwood thought was important to give yourself as a photographer (both the novice and professional). It’s called Storytelling With Pictures. Her project idea is as follows:
Telling a story with pictures is just like writing with words. Something is seen, or thought of, or imagined.
Tell a story with an image that you make to recount something--be it abstract, conceptual, documentary, or journalistic.
You can work with one person, a group, a place. It can be vast or very small. It can be realistic or abstract. It can be something real, and idea, a fantasy, an emotion.
You should tell your story with just one image. It should be purposeful, well-considered, and articulate. Someone who has never spoken with you about the story should be able to tell you what’s going on in the image.
YOUR ASSIGNMENT:
Consider how you can use the large format camera, your understanding of lighting, and the composition rules that you learned in Photography Studio I as a guide to emphasizing certain details that make a particular story action-packed, comfortable, scary, beautiful, lonely, etc. Use them in tandem with the particular movements of the large-format camera to get your point across.
Remember that this project is about you and about your story. You can truly tell us anything, but you do need to use the camera in the studio and you may need to bring in props or think about the studio space in a creative way in order to make your story obvious to a larger audience.
Below are some artists you may want to reference who are either photojournalists by trade or who use story-telling as a concept in their fine art work:
NYTimes Picture of the Day / What makes each of these images have such impact?
Why is Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother an important photograph in the history of photojournalism? Why does this image hold so much power when photographers discuss truth in photography?
Walker Evans / What is his role as a photographer and why is he so important to our local art culture?
Roger Fenton / Radio Lab's The Fact of the Matter podcast episode with Errol Morris. (Here are the two images in random order.)
Also by Radio Lab - Sight Unseen. How appropriate is it for photographers to take photographs in private, sentimental, or traumatic moments?
Vivian Maier's / Finding Vivian Maier movie.
James Nachtwey / The War Photographer movie.
Mike Brodie / What did he feel was so compelling about the single story he told as a photographer?
These are the specific steps we'll follow and ones you can return to in order to grasp the entirety of the project:
STEP 1: Make decisions about what you want to photograph to tell your story. Will you need a particular person? Will you need props? What else might you need to make this feel as photojournalistic as possible? (Keep in mind that these images will be in black and white.)
STEP 2: Sign up for a date to use the large format camera. (In the meantime, I’ll demonstrate how to put it together, how it moves (uniquely) and how to take photographs with it.
STEP 3: On the day before your shooting date, load the 4” x 5” film. Practice this so you can do it well--in the dark. We’ll probably do it together just so that you feel comfortable. Also, download a light meter app.
STEP 4: On the day of your shoot, be prepared with all materials. If there’s a chance, come in to test out lights and set up any props you can ahead of time.
STEP 5: Shoot. Test the camera positions and see what the pros and cons of this super old camera are--particularly as you use your digital app and consider some of the things we’ve already talked about in terms of digital photography.
STEP 6: On the day after your shoot, we’ll set up the chemistry in the black darkroom so that you can process your sheet film. That will take an entire block to get the film out, put it through the developer, stop bath, and fixer in complete darkness, and then to do the water, fixer remover, and last water wash in the light. I’ll be your timer since you won’t be able to have any light in the black darkroom. Once finished, hang your negatives by a corner in the film dryer.
STEP 7: Once everyone has finished their film and has it in protective sleeves I’ll do a scanning demonstration. You'll want to scan your negatives, too. We’ll discuss types of scans, resolution, and various other components of having a high quality digital image.
STEP 8: Once everyone has scanned we’ll spend time learning the basic cloning, healing, rubber-stamping, and layer adjustment tools in Photoshop. You’ll want to do everything you can to clean up the images and prepare them for printing.
STEP 9: Lastly, we’ll pick a particular size and paper and print them out!
Credits:
Created with images by Antonin Duallia - "untitled image" • Nick Fewings - "untitled image" • Christian Mackie - "A layflat collection of retro and antique cameras on a blue background like Pentax 6x7, Mamiya RZ67, Holga, Contax, Rolleiflex and Nikon. " • Wells Baum - "Camera market" • Kai Pilger - "untitled image" • Jeff Hopper - "ottomon and interior design" • adrian - "Multnomah Falls through the viewfinder" • Maksim Tarasov - "Vintage Camera" • Reno Laithienne - "Lumi's place. I miss you, hon'. " • Denise Jans - "Recently i bought another lubitel( Lubitel2)" • Kirill Sharkovski - "Under the Radar I was watching Surveillance Camera Man or whatever he's called on Youtube and yeah, it kinda made me think: why are we so afraid of being taken picture or video of if we're under constant surveillance everywhere, anyway? It's unethical to take pictures of people if they do not want it, but is it ethical when it is done on a mass scale? Hmm 🤔" • Ellen Auer - "untitled image" • Chris Murray - "untitled image" • Bank Phrom - "Print is Alive"