I hand hold my Speed Graphic Anni all the time. My other Graphic (Crown View) needs a tripod.
I hand hold my Speed Graphic Anni all the time. My other Graphic (Crown View) needs a tripod.
Look in any news publication from the 40's, 50's and on into the 60's and any picture you see was probably taken with one of these.
Attached is a copy of the first Pulitzer Prize winner, 1942, for photography taken by Milton Brooks of the Detroit News entitled, "Ford Strikers Riot". Camera used was a Speed Graphic using a 127mm lens.
For one of the most famous photographs of all time, check out Joe Rosenthal's 1945 Pulitzer winner, his picture of the flag raising by US marines on Iwo Jima, also taken with a Speed Graphic.
We most certainly used them hand held. That was the purpose of the Speed Graphics, the Super Graphics, the Busch Pressman, the Linhof Technikas, etc.Originally Posted by Pawlowski6132
They were called "press cameras", not large format cameras. Large format cameras were bigger, like 8x10.
Editors wouldn't hire you unless you were using a press camera. I bought a Super Graphic outfit (including strobe and 6 holders) around 1957 or 58 and used it through 1961. I had a colleague who convinced the editor of the Grand Forks Herald that his photographs were just as usable from a Rollei TLR, but that was the exception.
I did my own darkroom work and handed the editors an 8x10 print, never the negative. I do not recall ever printing a whole frame, most were cropped down from negative area about the size of 35mm. The editors never knew the difference. When it was published it was cropped even further, so I would try to crop my prints to the point that the editors would publish them as submitted.
When I was working I wore a sport coat. I would put two holders in each pocket so they became quite baggy and stretched out. I had the most recent Graflex Stroboflash that was very powerful (see the photos in my link below) but had a large, very heavy battery pack with a shoulder strap.
http://www.largeformatphotography.in...t=sports+photo
Yes, we used them hand-held for sports photography as well. The images above were the only prints I have left, but we used them for basketball, football, track, baseball, and other events as well as hockey. Even outdoors I used the strobe for fill and for better stop action.
The news style was very stereotypical with heavy shadows from the flash or strobe. I would say that most news photos up until around 58 or so were with press cameras. Weegee's are a good example of how news photography was done.
al
Yes, if you watch old movies, they often show a group of reporters with their Speed Graphics, chasing down a story.
I like tripods, though, and use them almost 100 percent of the time. That includes 35mm, DSLR, and medium format.
It's not meant to be handheld. It's meant to be coddled, hugged and loved.
It's all relative. Somewhere in the literature there's a letter by Alfred Steiglitz (to whom I don't know) where he sings the praises of the 5x7 Graflex SLR, for being hand-holdable. Those cameras are monsters... and there's a photograph by Paul Strand of Steiglitz hand-holding just that camera; perhaps AS was shooting some of his skyscape "Equivalents". Strand, for the record,though, always used his 5x7 Home Portrait Graflex on a tripod.
Editors wouldn't hire you unless you were using a press camera.
Many thanks to Al Olson for sharing his experience with us.
On this side of the Atlantic in Western Europe my feeling is that press photographers had abandoned the 9x12 format for the more compact 6x6 (cm)Rolleiflex TLR camera right after the second World War. I remember that Capa covering the Normandy events after D-day had a rolleiflex TLR in addition to the Contax he had on the beach on D-Day. Lee Miller covered her journeys to Germany following the progression of the allied armies with a Rollei TLR as well.
And regarding what the movies show, sometimes the movies continue to show obsolete tools that are characteristic of a certain job in the imagination of the public, and not necessarily the tools actually in use...
Robert Doisneau who was not really a press photographer switched directly from a heavy 13x18 cm view camera in the thirties to the Rolleiflex just before WW-II. Doisneau actually worked for Renault and he delivered some superb advertising photographs of top-class Renault cars. But he was more interested in candid shots of humble workers & people in the streets. Eventually he was fired from his job at Renault and became a free-lance photographer, he chose the Rollei, not the 4x5 Graflex...
But there is no question that 4x5 press cameras are a kind of an American specialty : try to find a decent Graflex in a shop at a decent price in Paris nowdays... and be prepared to loose your time and money !! Thanks to the Internet, now we have direct access to the US stock of 4x5 Press cameras !!
But wait a minute : the 4x5 camera handheld : this IS the solution to legally take LF pictures in Paris, in the Louvre gardens without paying the infamous "tripod-fee"
(see this recent discussion)
http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ghlight=savoye
This thread has inspired my recollection with a little more information about the press photography experience. I hope you don't think it is too much.
Certainly smaller cameras were used early on. Photographers like H. C-B were shooting with Leicas back in the thirties. Rolleis were also very popular, but news editors did not take them seriously.
I usually carried a 35mm as a backup. As I said earlier, if you handed the editors a print they didn't know the difference. The downside with roll film is that the assignment might only require a couple of frames, but you would have to develop the whole roll.
By the late fifties many of the prominent news photographers were using Leicas and then the Nikon viewfinder cameras. They were not as obtrusive for documentary photos.
As far as woman photographers go, Jacqueline Kennedy was at one time the society photographer for the Washington Star. I have seen photos of her using a Speed Graphic.
Below is a photo of my Super Graphic and the colleague who convinced the editors to let him use the Rollei.
Many of the assignments were to take group photos of various clubs and organizations. I seldom used the ground glass. To get rid of the harsh shadow from the strobe I would detach it from the camera, hold it over my head, brace the side of the camera against that arm and shoot.
I have often felt that the reason for editors' obsession for press cameras is that they presented an official/authoritative appearance as representatives of the news media. Certainly carrying a press camera and strobe equipment at that time permitted access to many places and events that were not available to the general, non-paying public.
In 1962 I was stationed in Washington D.C. I was no longer doing news photography. That fall they scheduled hydroplane races on the Potomac, including the Unlimiteds. I decided to go down with my Graphic to see if I could photograph the race.
Unfortunately, the shoreline and seating areas were all cordoned off for the paying attendees. My wife was carrying my camera bag with my film holders. I pulled out an expired press pass, put it in my hat band and walked up to an usher, asking him if it was possible to get closer to the action. He guided us down to the front, never bothering to examine the press pass. As it turned out, the 127mm was not adequate for photographing the boats out on the water. But we enjoyed the races.
Unfortunately, I traded the Super Graphic in on a Nikon. I later regretted it. About 10 years ago I was able to acquire a Toyo Super Graphic made in the mid-70s that is identical to my first. While it does not have the back movements of my Linhofs, it is not as heavy either.
al
Check out the photographers (often women) in old Japanese monster movies, such as Godzilla. They're all using them. And the movies are fun, too!
Mike
Politically, aerodynamically, and fashionably incorrect.
I've been shooting citiscapes of St. Paul with my Busch Pressman D over the past few weeks, all handheld, to good success. I keep my shutter speed shorter than 1/50 and try not to hiccup when I trip the shutter.
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