Who is using LF commercially?

[prado333]

David Burnett
Mark Power
Alec Soth

[Liam:]

Randy,

I am teaching at Waterford in Sandy, Utah, which is a K-12 prep. school. I have 9 4x5's that I incorporate fully into my JR AP photo curriculum starting in December. We start them easy with paper negatives move into film and a simplified/modified Zone System. We contact print initially and end up utilizing full camera movements and printing in pt/pd. We have two 8x10's and an 8x10 enlarger that the students also use.

While the commercial use of large format has dropped off tremendously, I find that as a teaching tool for both the spoken (and unspoken) curriculum, LF is perfect. The lessons learned from shooting LF transcend the medium and are applicable to a wide variety of real-life lessons.

Right now they are between Cyanotypes and VDB's, and two of my students have already taken out the 8x10. When they are ready they can go out with me and shoot the 4x10, the 8x20 and the 11x14 cameras.

The students are quite receptive to the lessons learned from the large and ultra-large cameras. They rise to the occasion and are very excited to put up with the struggles when they see the results are mind-blowing.

Will they use these cameras ever in their life again? Personally it does not matter to me. The lessons they learned while in my program are enough to justify it year after year. Yes, I do have pressure from above to eliminate any large format from my curriculum. I will leave the program if they forced me to eliminate LF and film from my teaching.

Good luck with your decision!

Can I come to your school please? I would love to have had that opportunity so keep up the good work!