VorpelSword
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2007
- Messages
- 1,550
The Path Not Taken . . .A True Collector
Back in the mid 1990s I belonged to a local camera club. I was relatively new to Large Format photography (head-under-the-cloth view cameras) and slowly feeling my way around on a boot-strapped, badly frayed, shoe-string budget. One club meeting took place at a member's home where he showed us his newly completed showroom for all his cameras.
Wow: This was a dedicated room, maybe 30x30, with built in glass display cases full of minty-to-pristine examples of notable cameras from Minox, through Leicas and Hassle lads . . .and every odd-ball model and format imaginable; all great stuff. Cabinet space below held seconds (and thirds) of the items under glass.
Displayed in the center of the room were two huge ultra-large format studio cameras. Yards of bellows held up by intermediate adjustable frames on geared tracks. Everything was glowing wood and leather. Each had a ground glass measured in square feet ( so, larger than 12' x 12") . Well, this was twenty-five years ago . . .my best memory now is that they were just sooooo BIG. They dominated the center of the display room like The Guns of Naverone.
Weeks later I ran into him at a local camera show. I suggested that we could make a few pictures with one or both cameras. He hesitated. I told him that I was working at a major teaching hospital where I had access to X-ray and MRI films in large sizes. He was not enthusiastic. I told him that I could get the films developed in their appropriate chemistry in the dedicated automatic processing equipment at the hospital.
His eyes began to scan left and right like he was speed-reading reading something in the air just above my head, His blink rate went above 120/min, then his forehead broke out in beads of cold sweat and he blurted, "You mean take pictures?" He turned his back and walked rapidly away.
Now THATS a collector. . . .Not that there is anything wrong with that.
Back in the mid 1990s I belonged to a local camera club. I was relatively new to Large Format photography (head-under-the-cloth view cameras) and slowly feeling my way around on a boot-strapped, badly frayed, shoe-string budget. One club meeting took place at a member's home where he showed us his newly completed showroom for all his cameras.
Wow: This was a dedicated room, maybe 30x30, with built in glass display cases full of minty-to-pristine examples of notable cameras from Minox, through Leicas and Hassle lads . . .and every odd-ball model and format imaginable; all great stuff. Cabinet space below held seconds (and thirds) of the items under glass.
Displayed in the center of the room were two huge ultra-large format studio cameras. Yards of bellows held up by intermediate adjustable frames on geared tracks. Everything was glowing wood and leather. Each had a ground glass measured in square feet ( so, larger than 12' x 12") . Well, this was twenty-five years ago . . .my best memory now is that they were just sooooo BIG. They dominated the center of the display room like The Guns of Naverone.
Weeks later I ran into him at a local camera show. I suggested that we could make a few pictures with one or both cameras. He hesitated. I told him that I was working at a major teaching hospital where I had access to X-ray and MRI films in large sizes. He was not enthusiastic. I told him that I could get the films developed in their appropriate chemistry in the dedicated automatic processing equipment at the hospital.
His eyes began to scan left and right like he was speed-reading reading something in the air just above my head, His blink rate went above 120/min, then his forehead broke out in beads of cold sweat and he blurted, "You mean take pictures?" He turned his back and walked rapidly away.
Now THATS a collector. . . .Not that there is anything wrong with that.
