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A few more selections from our post card gallery. For more information here's a link to Every Picture Tells A Story. www.mindsimedia.info/SaleStuff/20thCentRetro/PostCards/We...
Oh! A Super neat old medium format view/press camera: Busch Pressman 2-1/4x3-1/4, along with a Heiland flash in great shape (the original Light Sabre was made from one of these!).
Everything works. The camera's in lovely shape, with smooth motions, rangefinder coupling (RF windows need cleaning but I do believe it's functioning and with correct lens). Everything locks down tight and the bellows seem to be tight and supple, not creased or buckled. Shutter seems to operate right (to my ear) and the glass is clean and clear. The rollfilm adapter is a wonderful piece of mechanical stuffness. I think you could load this thing up with film today, get some batteries and bulbs for the flash, and to make like Weegee tonight.
This is Christopher Wright, a very accomplished photographer who specializes in black and white portraits and has worked in large format medium and likes, truly, to get under the hood in his studio. He stepped into a conversation I was having at Gary's bookstore, The Bookery, about the legendary Weegee ... Wright pointed out, correctly, that Weegee was a big slob. But Wright went on to add more details: Weegee rarely bathed and stank of dark room chemicals and was not someone within whose fragrant zone a body wished to be. It always has been a peeve of mine that someone's body odor, if in fact they bore a generous aura -- a key fact about them -- is often absent in general biographies. But if they did smell and it is mentioned, it is usually because they smelled bad. It is rumored that Napolean stank to high heaven as well as Chairman Mao. I think this is important to know. Anyway, I did not ask Mr. Wright if he ever got close enough to get a whiff of Weegee's musk, but in perusing Wright's work there is no doubt in my mind but that my new acquaintance is a fine artist [and --see comment below -- he presented with no odor, offensive or otherwise, that I could detect]. Mr. Wright knows all there is to know about the elements of photography and apparently has taught students how to make their own cameras with items you can get at a supermarket. In May he will be teaching a course at Cazenovia College on some of the more arcane photographic knowledge he possesses and I am interested in checking it out. Wright's work can be viewed at -- www.visionsinsilver.com. I recommend a visit. Of course, don't tell him where you saw this crummy photo of him! Stranger No. 44.