Watching the old movies and newsreels from the forties up to the sixties from the last century, I'm always impressed by the huge crowd of pressmen, taking pictures from the events taking place. The photographers
used to wear their Press Hats while carrying their enormous press cameras with one or two huge flash guns, trying to get
the best possible position to take a news shot. Back in 1995 I purchased my first Speed Graphic on a fair in Holland, where I live. First of all, previous of taking pictures, I had to take care of the camera itself. I had to repair the shutter, clean the lens and adjust the range finder and the infinity
stops. At the same time I studied the working mechanism in all sorts of photographic manuals,
including the history of press photography in general. I learned that the first attempt to cover a public event in London
was the funeral of Prince Albert in 1861. In the 20th century
from the first world war up to the 1960ties these impressive classic analogue press camera
were very popular with the press.
Despite the fact that these cameras were huge and heavy they were also used for
street photography. As an excellent example you'll remember the famous Arthur Fellig, nicknamed WEEGEE, who covered day and night
the events in the streets of New York back in the thirties.
Photo cameras became more than just tools; they became symbols of cultural change. In
America, press photography played a crucial role in the civil rights movement,
capturing pivotal moments of social upheaval. In Europe, photographers like
Henri Cartier-Bresson pioneered street photography, capturing the essence of
post-war life. Photographers all over the world embraced these trends, integrating
them into their own rich artistic heritage.
Today an increasing number of famous photographers, some of them with a world fame reputation, have rediscovered these classic cameras, not only using them to distinguish between digital simplicity
and analogue craftsmanship, but mainly to create unique photographic works of art.
What can be found on my pages?
In the next pages you'll not only meet all types of classic press and other large format cameras, which some of them survived two or at least one world war, but
you will also enjoy to meet professional photographers, who succeeded to
work with these classic cameras and successfully
reach levels they have never experienced before. These perfectly build
reliable photographic apparatus showed them the way how to create an image
rather than point and shoot digital pictures.
Further more, you'll find pages to guide you through the labyrinth of technical problems, specifically for restoration and refurbishing these
masterpieces of camera building. I've tried to explain most of the well know problems, being convinced that it is impossible to expose all the solutions for repairing, restoring and using these cameras. These pages are published for those who want to share my love for these extraordinary beautiful,
timeless designed and hand powered, non electronic, photo cameras.
Please enjoy and I'd welcome every contribution to these pages
when sent using my e-mail
address.
This website was published as from 2008 and updated since then while hosted by
xs4all.nl
Due to the xs4all.nl host management they decided in 2022 to discontinue servicing
home pages.
From then on I had to move my pages to a new host which works very nicely although
not all my pages have been moved already.
Please practise some patience if links do not work immediately.
Sorry for any inconveniences this may cause.
Jo Lommen
The Netherlands
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