June 15
Film and Digital : The Dead Horse Whinnies
Coming of age as a photographer during the 1970’s and ‘80’s, I shot 35mm film --- like most enthusiasts of limited means --- and developed it in my makeshift bathroom darkroom. But when I resumed “serious” photography around 2004, after a several-year hiatus, I first did so with a family hand-me-down Kowa Super 66. As stolid and no-frills as that camera was, one look at those medium-format negatives told me I’d found my format. Medium format seemed to...
May 15
Collector vs Photographer
I am a camera collector. I've always been a camera collector. But sometimes I'm also a photographer, and it's so confusing....the B&H, KEH, and Adorama boxes just keep coming, but the pictures still suck....
If there were a 12-step program for camera addicts, thus would I introduce myself to the group. Imagine the scene: a tremulous circle of clammy camera-tweakers in a dingy VFW hall; screw-mount Leicas, Rolleiflexes, and 500-series Hasselblads draped around ...
April 15
An Introduction
When David Bram invited me to write a monthly column for Fraction, I naturally asked---after verifying his sanity---about his mandate for the work. It seems my brief is promiscuously broad: to write about photography as the muse impels me, from an outsider's perspective---as someone whose primary residence is not in the Fine Art Photography neighborhood, but who drives, agog, the mean, beautiful streets of that gated community every chance he gets. I'm grateful for this opportunity to inf...