Adolph Gasser

[Bob Salomon]

I have just been told that John Gasser is closing the store after all these years and the final sale starts tomorrow.

Just think, Ansel Adams and Adolph Gasser were very close. There are office walls covered in Adams prints, Adolph was the first importer of Nikon cameras into the USA. A lot of history in that store!

[Jerry Bodine]

...Angel Adams and Adolph Gasser were very close...

First time I've seen Adams referred to as an angel; Mortensen likely would disagree.

[faberryman]

The store is all but closed anyway. There is practically nothing on the shelves, and what is there is hardly worth buying at any price.

[Bob Salomon]

First time I've seen Adams referred to as an angel; Mortensen likely would disagree.

Spell checker apparently doesn't recognize Ansel!

BTW, Adolph. Was best man at Adam's wedding, or vice Versa. Or they were best men at each other's.

[William Whitaker]

I had heard that Ansel's horizontal Franken-enlarger was a creation with at least some roots in, if not born of Gasser's. Does anybody know? Or did I just dream that?

[David Karp]

I just purchased a lens for my Mamiya from Gasser's on eBay. I had to contact them by phone. The person I talked to could not have been nicer.

[John Kasaian]

Which Gasser's location is having the sale?
Oops! My bad. There's only the 181 2nd St location left.

[Bob Salomon]

Which Gasser's location is having the sale?
Oops! My bad. There's only the 181 2nd St location left.

Geary has been gone for a long, really long, time.

[Merg Ross]

I had heard that Ansel's horizontal Franken-enlarger was a creation with at least some roots in, if not born of Gasser's. Does anybody know? Or did I just dream that?

Hi Will, good to see you checking-in.

No dream; Gasser built an 8x10 horizontal enlarger for Ansel out of an old 11x14 studio camera. Light source was a bank of 50 watt bulbs separately switched.

Gasser's store was the place to go for professionals around here in the 30's, 40' and 50's. Maybe later for some, but Brook's Camera was a strong competitor and my first view camera was purchased from them in 1953.

Hope all goes well.

Best,
Merg

[Jim Graves]

My favorite memory of Gassers ... when I first started in LF I rented an 8x10 from them just to see what it was like ... I had a 4x5 Crown Graphic at the time.

If you rented the outfit on Friday afternoon you got to use it the whole weekend for a 1-day rental. It came with holders, lens, tripod, dark cloth, changing bag, and carrying case ... I added film and a meter.

I had no idea what I was doing or getting into. I drove into SF and picked it up ... it was a Sinar P2 ... the combined kit felt like it weighed 100 lbs. ... it took me 30 minutes just to figure out how to assemble the camera. I didn't know the difference between a field camera and a studio camera. By the time I lugged that thing around SF and parts of rural Mendocino County for 2 1/2 days I sure did.

I laugh about it now but I was sore for a week.

But ... I learned a most valuable valuable lesson ... bigger cameras do not take better pictures.

I'll miss going in there when I visit The City.