In Praise of 5x7... Post'em !

[Holdenrichards]

I always enjoy your images along the creeks - they are so much like my area...probably because I am not that far from you, being in south central VA. As for 5X7 - I am just now stepping back into it. I got rid of my 5X7 a few years back and stuck with 4X5 and 8X10, but I have always loved the look of a 5X7 print matted and framed, and since I have gotten into cyanotype printing, I decided to get another 5X7 camera. Just purchased one from a forum member...when it arrived a week or so ago, turned out to be the one I sold on the forum 5 years ago. Seller must have purchased it from the member I sold it to.
Welcome home...

Thanks Randy! and what a story. Karma, whatever, we're lucky to own 5x7s

[Gary Tarbert]

Is that the colour of their beaks or is it light?

What an awesome exposure. Congrats.

+1

[mdarnton]

Deardorff V8 w 5x7 Back | Fujinon 210mm F5.6 | Kodak Ektachrome 64T
JOBO CPP2 | Tetenal E6
Heidelberg Tango PMT Drum Scanner

Pali

The color here makes me want to run out and buy some Ektachrome. I was just pricing processing the other day, and 5x7 isn't as much as I thought it was. These look like Kodachromes from the 1940s! Beautiful. I guess there must be some routine I can run my digital shots through to mimic this look a bit. . . I should look.

[Holdenrichards]

5x7 Contact prints that are currently in my exhibit.

[jon.oman]

Back Road, Washington by Austin Granger, on Flickr

Looking back at some of the older images. This is very nice Austin!

[Doug Howk]

A 75 yr old wedding dress viewed front & back (two 5X7 Palladium prints combined for display}

[CreationBear]

5x7 Contact prints that are currently in my exhibit.

Great work here and on your web site--you really have a feel for the Upland South. Out of curiosity, what camera(s) are you using for your 6x6 series?

[scott palmer]

I still use a Toyo G 5 x 7 I bought in 1988, from a guy who purchased it new in Japan, but never used it (I got it out of Shutterbug. Remember those days, before eBay?). It was my 'Go-To' camera when I was a cross-country (OTR) truck driver running 48 states and Canada. I lived out of my truck for two and a half years. No address, no phone, no mail (except at the yard, which I visited about every two months.), and I made hundreds and hundreds of 5 x 7 negatives.

I'd plan my layovers so I could meet up with people all over the country, with whom I'd gone to school while studying photography at A.S.U. — where I was fantastically fortunate, in that, my M.F.A. committee there was made up of Light Bill and Dark Bill (after some old comedy thing, Light Bob and Dark Bob, which I don't think I ever heard). Light Bill was the late, great photo-writer and critic Bill Jay. He was always happy and ready to drink red (only) wine from a jug. Dark Bill was Bill Jenkins, the brilliant photo scholar who dreamed up, curated, and wrote the essay for "New Topographics," among many other pieces of work. He was always deep in brooding thought; therefore, Dark Bill (but also did a fair amount of academically related drinking).

Incidentally, when I was at A.S.U., my roommate ran the L.F. department at Tempe Camera and was good friends with Keith Canham, who shopped there. It was during those years, 1987-1990 that Canham Cameras was started. I used to tag along out to the shop all the time, when it was basically a garage.

On layovers, I was able to make a lot of pictures out with old friends from school, as well as use their darkrooms to process film. So I used HC-110, because it was readily available all over the country. But there were still misadventures and imperfect negatives produced in some of the more spartan facilities I had to use. I don't care. If I like it, I print it. I never (by choice) show my work anyway.

The road adventure paid off all my student loans and still left quite a bit in the bank (no personal expenses on the road). Film was Tri-X. Negatives printed on Azo (the good old days of 500 sheet boxes). Unfortunately, everything was scanned on a cheap Canon unit that really was a piece of crap, but it was what I could afford at the time.


Fishermen, Russian River, from U.S. 101


Deep Water Channel, Port of Stockton, Stockton CA


Self-Serving Self-Portrait, during D.O.T. Tire Check, outside Winnemucca NV, 107º

P.S.: coincidentally, only yesterday I discovered my 5 x 7 needs a new bellows, after 35 years (not bad), and I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with Ultra Fine Photo Acc. on Ebay. Looks pretty good to me, and great price.

[chassis]

Thanks Scott, great images and interesting narrative.

[Jim Galli]

I still use a Toyo G 5 x 7 I bought in 1988, . . .

Scott, thanks for sharing these. I loved the first one best. I love pics like that because I hate to spot prints and scans. Beautifully seen.