Graflex.org

[Leslie]

Hi,

I am writing a book about a photographer whose collection of about 50,000 images was recently discovered here in Iowa. Most of the book will be about the people and the times he photographed, primarily farm families from the mid-1930s to the 1960s, but I'd like to talk a little bit about the camera he used. It was a 5x7 Graflex, bought used in about 1935, or maybe a little earlier, but not before 1929. I don't know exactly what the model was--the camera is no longer available (although I may be able to track it down).

Is there anyone with a lot of experience who might be willing to speak with me over the phone about what it was like to use this kind of camera at that time? I'm trying to get a sense of what needed to be done to load and unload film, how much time might be lost between shots, how much was manually done for each photo, how much skill was needed to produce consistantly good photographs in great volume, etc. I just want to give the lay reader (and myself) a sense of the challenges this photographer faced.

Thanks in advance. As you can probably tell, I am quite the novice on this! If you think you can be of help, please just reply to this e-mail, and then we can set up a time to speak by phone.

Thanks again,

Leslie Loveless
Iowa City

[Les]

I'd be more than happy talking to you off line. I'll send my phone number via email.

Log in and click on [private messages]

Les

_________________
Good judgement comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement

[ This Message was edited by: Les on 2001-08-06 14:08 ]