Tillman Crane and Russ Young will be leading a soft focus workshop at Tillman's studio in Camden,Maine, on May 15th through 18th. Russ received his doctorate in art history, writing his dissertation on soft focus lenses and their use, and has been using soft focus lenses since being given a Verito in 1983.
Russ will bring some of his collection for the examination and use of the workshop participants. The lenses will include extremely rare examples such as the Pinkham & Smith SEMI-ACHROMATIC (and other P&S lenses), the Puyo-Pulligny ANACHROMATIQUE, Dallmeyer BERGHEIM, pre-war IMAGON (as Heinrich Kuhn designed it at f/4.5), Karl Struss' PICTORIAL, PORTRAIT EIDOSCOPE, and the less rare and perhaps more useful Verito, Veritar, Kodak Portrait, Gundlach Hyperion, Gundlach Meniscus, Graf Variable (as favored by Weston and Modotti), Sigmar, Spencer Port-Land (used by Uncle Ansel), etc. You will learn the difficulties of using some of these lenses, and Russ' evaluation of their suitabilit with modern materials.
Cameras will also be provided, from Century 7a and Burke & James Rembrandt, to Canham and Pentax 6x7 and Graflex 4x5. There will be discussions regarding the optimal cameras for soft focus lens use, especially the ones designed in period for that purpose.
Russ will also show original Pictorial soft focus prints and a slide show illuminating how the concept of the diffused image originated, evolved and decayed.
The workshop fee is $850, less than you would spend on buying a lens which does not mesh with your vision and equipment. For further information see Tillman's web page: www.tillmancrane.com The cut-off date is soon - if you're interested, please do not wait to respond.
See you in scenic Maine,
Russ
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Originally Posted by Mark Sawyer
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