How many 4X10 photographers are out there?

[Brian Vuillemenot]

Now that I have my 4X10 film holders and am ready to start shooting, I was wondering how many of us shoot 4X10, either with a dedicated camera or with the half darkslide method using an 8X10 camera. I know that Kerry Thalmann has had a long time on and off love affair with the format, but no one else come to mind. Also, does anyone know of any photographers who have produced books using this format that I could look to for inspiration? Thanks!

[Matt Miller]

I shoot a fair bit of 4x10 with my 8x10 & a slider/mask. I like the format quite a bit & find that, occasionally, a 4x10 contact print can be just the perfect size.

[William Blunt]

Brian,
I use a dedicated 4x10 camera and contact print all my negatives with platinum/palladium. This is a great format to work with and I use it for most of my work. I don't know of anyone working with 4x10 that has a book out but 10x20 is the same proportions. I have a couple 4x10 prints on e*ay right now but don't know about inspiration!
Wm Blunt

[N Dhananjay]

Shoot quite a bit of 4x10 with the half darkslide method. Many folks have done very nice work in 8x20 - Art Sinsabaugh, Sandy King, Carl Weese, Lois Connor and Michael Smith come to mind - I'm leaving out lots of others, many of whom contribute to this site. 8x20 is the same proportion as 4x10 and looking at their work should give you a good idea. Cheers, DJ

[Steve Nieslony]

I shoot with a dedicated 4x10 camera. I have printed them exclusively on silver (though pt/pd will occur in the future) - both as contact prints and as enlargements. I love how handy the camera is - mor ein the 5x7 scale then the 8x10 scale.

A well known photographer that shoots 4x10 - heck he may have started the whole 4x10 concept when he got some 4x10 x-ray holders - is jay Dusard. I believe Canham built his first 4x10 cameras after some folks that took a class with Jay wanted to shoot 4x10.

Anyway... check out his book - Open Country - for his 4x10 work. The book came out ~10 years ago and may be hard to find these days.

Steve

[William Blunt]

Brian,
Wow, I meant 8x20 instead of 10x20 being the same proportions as 4x10. Don't know how I forgot Jay Dusard's book Open Country. Jay taught me how to cut 8x1o film to 4x10 after taking one of his workshops several years ago. Had a chance to watch Jay work with his "adobe brick" 4x10 camera and look at the image on the ground glass. I'm pretty sure Jay is the one that started the whole dedicated 4x10 camera thing.

[Brian Vuillemenot]

Thanks for the advice, guys. Does Jay Drusard have a website? I did a search for it, but couldn't find one. Unfortunately, his 4X10 book seems to be hard to find- Amazon.com has one copy used, but they want $145.00 for it, which is a little over my budget!

[David A. Goldfarb]

I occasionally do the half-darkslide trick on 8x10". I always have the half-darkslide in my back, since it doesn't add any significant weight or bulk and offers an interesting compositional option.

For 4x5", I sometimes compose with a panorama in mind, but I just crop after the fact.

[David A. Goldfarb]

"in my pack," of course.

[Kerry L. Thalmann]

I see my name's already popped up in this thread. Yes, I am a 4x10 shooter. I truly enjoy this underappreciated format. The aspect ratio is wonderful and the cameras and lenses aren't too big or heavy. I may be a bit unique as most other 4x10 photographers whose work I've seen shoot in black and white. I shoot 4x10 color (Velvia and E100VS sliced down from 8x10). Any other color 4x10 shooters out there?

Like others have mentioned, it was the work of Jay Dusard that originally turned me on to this format. A few years back, I was fortunate to have a couple photos published in the same book as Jay Dusard, and several other photographers whose work I admire. The book is "Standing Up Country" by C. Gregory Crampton. The two images I had published were shot on 4x5 color (I wasn't shooting 4x10 at the time), but Jay's were 4x10 black and white images - very nice stuff.

Ever since I got back into the 4x10 format, I have been planning to write a couple articles on the subject. I'll have to make it a New Year's resolution to finally finish them in 2005.

Kerry