Don't fancy Leica!

This is a "quick and dirty" translation from Russian of the article I found in the old "Soviet photo" magazine, issue dated Jan 1934 with portrait of Stalin on its cover (of course, what else?):

Re-publishing today a photography article this old deserves at least an explanation, so here it is:
There was a time when 35mm film was rapidly gaining popularity while older types of larger format cameras and films, still in use at the time, were slowly becoming outdated. Most of the new 35mm cameras of the period were extremely expensive and out of reach of regular soviet citizen for the obvious reasons:

• the production of 35mm Leica copies (FEDs) just started, they were not yet available for order;
  
• there was no free trade with abroad;
  
• the cameras actually were expensive;
  
• the salaries were very low.

But still, part of the soviet elite and professionals who by nature of their work had to use photography were looking to acquire the latest equipment: it was fashionable, it was cool, it was better then the old, and in almost all cases it was (ta-dam) ... Leica! Few examples come to mind:

• ...poet Bulat Okudjava in his teenage years before WWII imagining himself in "...black pants, white Apache shirt and "Leica" hanging from the shoulder" (see his short story "Certain failures among continuous successes");
  
• ...writer Ilya Ilf buying "Leica" using money borrowed from Eugene Petrov, his co-author and friend; Eugene was joking that after this he had "no money no co-author", because Ilf was busy photographing and did not have time to work and earn salary; with this camera Ilf photographed the USA in mid-30s, which resulted in their illustrated book "One-Story America", published in USSR in 1936 and known to English readers as "Little Golden America".

The article below is written by soviet official, Semyon Evgenov, director of SOYUSPHOTO trust. SOYUSPHOTO was created in 1931 by decree of the ruling communist party as the country's main propaganda organization to produce and publish photo-illustrations for Soviet magazines, newspapers and other types of publications, so despite the fact the article was published in the widely distributed photography magazine, it was truly meant to be read and fully understood by the few elite readers, as it was usual for Soviet press of stalin's period. It is poorly written in crude soviet official language I tried to imitate in translation, where photography gear referred as "photography weapons" and photographers as "photo-workers". The author is following his absurd line of reasoning minding his own petty goals -- like saying something bad about some photographers and something good about others (by coincidence, the "others" work for the author in his SOYUSPHOTO trust), but at the same time it is interesting and funny to see the parallels to the 70s photography discussions "automatic vs manual", early 2000s topics "film vs digital" and so on. Well, enough said, here is the article:

Little Havana, backstage

This winter I started walking working class neighborhoods of Little Havana. I liked it better then the Calle Ocho. Yes, it is less iconic, never too crowded and there is nothing here to catch tourist's eye, but I'm not a tourist, more of a local already. Here are the few frames from the last week's wanderings:

Kill it before it lays eggs

I bought this can of Kodak 35mm cine version of Tri-X film from late 50s in a hope to find it exposed, but it turned out to be not. So I used the opportunity to check my old film development process on it. First, I put it in my FED-2 rangefinder camera and exposed at 50 E.I. (originally it was 320 ASA but 50 ASA is my best guess of what's left of it), I also bracketed with +1 and +2. Then, I used my standard process for developing fresh Tri-X (4.5 min @ 75F/24C in TMax 1:4) and it turned out to be heavily fogged, barely printable/scannable. Then I developed it in 10% HC-110 at 50F/10C for 2.5 minutes (the time had been calculated based on test). It came out ok. Here is how it looked after the development:

Lucas, I'm watching you

Again, Olympus XA/Tri-X

Walking Downtown

Olympus XA/Tri-X at box speed in TMax developer

In Wynwood

TOY WORLD by Victor Ginzburg

I published this book of photographs for my friend Victor Ginzburg.
He is an avid photographer; this is the book he was working on since 2005 and it is very unusual piece, at least for the modern photography book: all film, all square, all color. So, what is it, this book? Well, it has 82 pages and 72 photographs and almost no text in it, and it is clearly an art book, but can it be narrowed to more specific genre or school of photography? Asking myself this question, I had to admit that while I love this book immensely, I do not have the ready answer, at least not the verbal one. It is easier to limit the field by saying what this book is not: while many photographs in the book will qualify as a street photography, the book itself is not. Likewise, while author has traveled the world and many photographs where taken far from New England where he lives, is not about travel. Also it isn't a book about his family and friends despite the fact that many of the photographs are picturing his family and his friends.
So yes, I do not have the full and complete answer...still, I can point to the few clues:

- the color is very important for the book. As a black and white, it would not exist.
- the photography as art often has something of painting's legacy. This one has a lot of it.
- it is centered around humans and sure qualify as human-interest photography.

All in all, it is beautiful piece of art and I happy to have my copy.
The book is not expensive and can be had for ~$20 shipped to US location, see here:

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/502656

To help you decide, here are the few pages from the book:

Wynwood in January 2013

Wynwood, Leica M2/35mm Scopar/Tri-X @ E.I.400 in TMax developer
Few more photographs out of many I took in Wynwood recently:

Miami Street Photographer: a facebook page

I started the page for my photos at facebook. There will be more photographs than here, some of my older work, all of new. I'll post 2-3 pictures per day. Please "like" it if...if you like it :)

Night in Wynwood II

Again, Tri-X at E.I.1600 in Leica M2 but this time with Cosina's 35mm f/2.5 lens.
All on 1/15 and wide open.

Olympus XA again

I switched few things last week: went to TMax developer from Diafine for Tri-X and stopped pushing the film; I tried again little Olympus XA which had been sitting on the shelf for the last 2 years. So far I like both changes. What killed my interest in XA last time was Ilford HP5+ at E.I.800; it was not very good combo. Tri-X @ E.I.400 is much better.

Two Stories Plus X

I have little archive of five old undeveloped rolls I received from the ebay seller in Rochester, NY; there were 3 separate auctions somewhere in 2010; so I developed the rolls in 3 batches with the last one done just recently. Let's start with the first 2 rolls I developed in the first batch --
..........................................................................................................Here they are, the two 620 Plux-X rolls of intense green:



The condition could be better: the hardest rolls to separate from backing paper so far; I had to tear the paper to pieces and still some of it stayed, glued to the film.
The film itself was alive as quick test revealed; developed it at 40F/4.5C in 12% HC-110.
Here is the piece of developed film caught on camera before scanning:



Frame numbers got themselves happily transferred to the emulsion; there are dead round yellow spots where emulsion touched the hot metal of the spool's rusty cheeks and holes, holes, holes...the roll must had been stored in the attic or garage for ages, where it became really hot in the summers.

Still, there were some recoverable images:

Boy scouts from Brownie Six-20 flash

I found this camera on *bay in 2010. I have the record somewhere. I know I received it from Springfield, Oregon. It had exposed roll of 620 Kodak film in it; I bought it because of this forgotten, never developed film. I thought I developed it long time ago, there in 2010, and that it was empty. It was clear case of a false memory: while recently giving the camera to a friend as a present, I checked what's inside (good habit!) and presto! It was sitting there, red roll of 620 Kodak Verichrome Pan.
Verichrome Pan is relatively new film, it went on sale in 1956. So these are late 50s or 60s:

Wynwood at night

It was...windy, dark, surreal. Miraculous.
I had just few frames left in my M2...have to return there soon.
Leica M2/28mm/Tri-X at E.I.1600 in Diafine.

Miami Street Photography Festival: how it was

Here is the long overdue report on the Miami Street Photography Festival I was busy with in early December and on Alex and Rebecca Norris Webb's master-class I took during the festival. I actually posted a piece on my LiveJournal blog on the subject, but it was all done in Russian. So if you can read and, more importantly, understand Russian, check it out: ***here***

For the rest of you western folks, let's translate it into some Runglish...

Winter

Leica M2/28mm/Kentmere 400 @ E.I.800 in Diafine

Kentmere 400 film vs Tri-X in Diafine

I have not recently reviewed any film/developer combinations in this blog. There is a reason for this: film is well known thing, why bother with the reviews anyway? Well, if it is Tri-X of HP5+ then it's true, they have been around for a while, along with Diafine 2-bath developer I'm using here, but Kentmere 400 is all new animal, at least for me. So I bought 100ft roll for $29.95 from Adorama and tried it, along with Tri-X, in the same Leica M2 with 50mm f/2 Planar lens from Zeiss. It is not very scientific comparison per se; I just needed some feeling of it. I exposed Tri-X at E.I.1200-1600 and Kentmere at E.I.640-800, as recommended for Diafine. I looked at the resulting film strips on the light table and scanned them.
Looking at the negatives: Kentmere is drying flat, which is good. My version of Tri-X (Arista Premium 400 from Freestyle Photo) is not. The Kentmere is a bit "flatter" in terms of tonal gradations, compared to Tri-X. The Tri-X grain is bigger but I also like it more, the dense grain of Kentmere has not impressed me much (see the fragments below). On the night shots, Kentmere has denser blacks with less details in them. Ok, here are the shots, face to face --

2012 slideshow

2012 year through my lens(es); almost all of the pictires are B&Ws; bye-bye color...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/emirco/sets/72157632348805196/show/

Selected 2012, a set on Flickr.

Last week of December

Dry residue of the last week's wandering in the streets of Little Havana and Downtown with Olympus Stylus P&S:

Curious case of double exposure

Here, pictured in the uncut grass of my backyard, sits Brownie camera I received last February from *bay seller. It is ancient No 2A model from the early 20s. This very simple box camera has one speed rotary-type shutter and 3 Waterstop apertures...that's it. I bought is because there was a roll of exposed film inside. The film turned out to be a 116 Kodak Verichrome Pan. Now, Verichrome Pan is later film, went on sale in mid-50s. It is also known for preserving the latent image very well. So, 4 minutes in very cold and very active developer and...

Calle Ocho Photo Walk

I will be leading the photowalk at Calle Ocho in Little Havana this Saturday Dec 8th 2012. The photowalk is one of the key events of the fast approaching Miami Street Photography Festival. This is a post for those of you who decided to participate in the event:

Wynwood Fashion District in late November

Kiev 4am/35mm Jupiter Lens/Plus-X at E.I.400 in Diafine.
Tomorrow I am leaving for my seasonal Russian vacation and still debating what camera/cameras to take there...probably Contax with 50mm lens and Tri-X...it is dark there, I am going to need all the contrast I can master.

November Witch In Downtown Miami

November 31st, Olympus Stylus Epic/Tri-X at E.I.1600 in Diafine

Last night of November at Lincoln

Leica M2 with 28mm on TMax P3200 @ E.I.12500

Ii's coming