Me And T.S. Eliot

[JimAscher]

At the age of 84 my lifetime photographic quest has likely ended, not through impending mortality (not yet, anyway) but through having I believe attained my own personal “sweet spot” of equipment and output.

What is at this moment resonating with me are T.S. Eliot’s lines from “Little Gidding:”   

“... We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”

My “exploration” has not only included the acquisition of (too) many cameras and subsidiary equipment, extensive “window shopping” of the seemingly-non-stop evolving photographic technology, and experimentation of different photographic styles, including infrared, soft focus, and panoramic-induced medium format, as well as film and digital production (having finally given up my darkroom 15 years ago at my wife’s suggestion/urging to give digital a try).  My photographic endeavor has been principally in black-and-white (the exceptions being color slide film years ago when traveling).   

My Argus C3 was not my first camera (in my teens my father’s folding Kodak was really my first), but the Argus was the first with which I attempted “serious” photography.  It would be boring (to myself as well as others) to recite all the cameras I’ve had (both film and digital) to the present day, with mostly satisfying (to me) results from each and every one.

Let me begin by establishing that I’ve craved over the years to own a current model Leica, but at each photographic stage of my life (including currently) I’ve been unable to justify (to myself and wife) the expense of such acquisition. 

Since the Argus C3 I’ve not until recently owned and used a rangefinder camera (excepting I recall in my later film days acquiring and using for a spell a medium format FujiFilm GW690).  I’ve also played around briefly with a 4X5 view camera -- without producing anything I would consider notable.  I guess I just didn’t have the patience.

For the past five years or so I’ve done my black-and-white printing with a trusty Epson 1400, utilizing dilutions of carbon black ink I’ve mixed myself (thanks to the guidance of Paul Roark).
I also acquired a used Epson 4800 printer for reproduction of larger-sized panoramic (stitched) photos.

Then, not affording a Leica, but having an itch to return to the ease of using a rangefinder camera, I acquired a few months ago an Epson RD-1, the first you’ll recall of the digital rangefinder cameras.  With its only six megapixels, it’s however providing me with the deja vu sense of my Argus C3 (and later even Nikon F) film capture experiences.  In his praise years ago of the RD-1, Sean Reid observed the similarity of its black-and-white output to that of Kodak Tri-X film, my film of choice in the old days. 

I have recently returned from a three-week trip to England and France, where the RD-1 was the only camera I took with me (along with an assortment of five M-mount lenses – which I’d previously acquired for use with my now-fall-back Ricoh GXR M-mount camera).   Matched with the limitations(!) of my Epson 1400 using only three shades of black, my RD-1's print output takes me most-satisfyingly back to the days, experiences and (questionable) photographic accomplishments of my youth.  On a personally aesthetic level, the prints I’m turning out with this current Epson camera-printer combination are surprisingly representing for me that which I’ve apparently been (unconsciously) striving for all these years, since turning from film to digital.  But, of course, T.S. Eliot said it better.             



 

[BobDavid]

Good read, thanks.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Congratulations on finding your way back!

Your journey sounds eerily similar, but certainly not identical, to my own. One of my own proudest achievements in the digital era is that I feel that my black-and-white prints from my Epson 3800 printer are at least the equal of or sometimes better than the best prints of my 50+ year darkroom career.

I've just turned 76, so I guess I have another eight years to get all the way way back to my own essentials.

Thanks so much for sharing your story.

-Eric

[RSL]

Thanks Jim and Eric. Pretty wise words from you kids.

Like Jim, an Argus C3 wasn't my first camera. That was a folding Kodak. But the Argus came along not long after that, and I was still carrying it when I started pilot training for the Korean war. Over the years I've owned everything imaginable: a used 4 x 5 Speed Graphic that I turned into a stand camera, a used 8 x 10 Deardorff, a 5 x 7 Dunno What that I inherited from my grandfather, a 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 Ikoflex that I bought in Korea, a Rollei that I bought after I got back from Korea, three Leicas, a IIIf, an M2 and an M4. Then, when digital became usable, various point-and-shoots, an Olympus Pen E-P1, a Nikon D100, D2x, D3, and D800. I still own and switch between the E-P1 with a Leica Summilux and brightline finder for street photography, the D3 for bulk shoots, like play rehearsals, and the D800 -- usually on a tripod -- when I'm planning to make giant prints with my Epson 3880.

Like Eric, I did decades of darkroom work, but my 3880 B&W beats my darkroom stuff hands down.

Bottom line, it's not the equipment that matters. HCB had it right when he said, "Photographing is nothing. Looking is everything."

I turned 85 in March, and I've been spending less time on LuLa as I get busy writing my memoirs.

[Telecaster]

Right on, Jim.    I turn 55 this week and have yet to settle down with a single—or even primary—camera system in the digital era. I know it'll happen at some point…but only after I've exhausted myself. The R-D1 actually was #1 during 2007 & '08 when nerve compression issues in my neck & right shoulder (successfully dealt with since) limited my camera use. I keep it on a shelf now next to my Rolleiflex T…two cameras I'll never let go of. Both are still capable of delivering the goods, and may yet be called upon again to do so.

My dad was still snapping away with his favored Retina IIc at age 90. Given his deteriorating eyesight, how he managed to focus accurately with that tiny rangefinder is beyond me. But the negatives don't lie.

Keep clicking that shutter.

-Dave-