Large Format in the New York Times

[John Flavell]

I noticed a photo essay On the New York Times site that appears to have been shot with Polaroid.

The essay is called "The Quarrel" and is the top selection, for now, at:

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/multimedia/index.html

[Walt Calahan]

I don't see it up. Perhaps it's archived.

Many photo-journalists have been shooting with Crown and Speed Graphics with Polaroid Type 55 ever since David Burnett covered the last Presidential campaign for Time magazine using the same system.

http://www.davidburnett.com/

I've done work for Wired and CIO magazines using Type 55, as well as brochures for non-profits that have art directors who want something different.

[Leonard Evens]

It's there in a list of Photos near the bottom of the page.

[Walt Calahan]

Thanks Leonard, now I see it.

Fred R. Conrad is a long time staffer of the Times. At least I remember him when I got out of j-school in the late 70s.

He's been doing more of this kind of stuff lately. It's nice to see the depth of his talents being used.

Wonderful stuff. Michelle McNally, the New York Times' Director of Photography, brings a wealth of photographic understanding to the Times. She's brought many talented photographers on staff after she left Fortune Magazine, but she also has a great way of bringing out the skills of the older staffers, giving the newspaper far more photographic depth.

I expect the Times to grow even more over McNally's tenure.

[Eric Rose]

http://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/race/photo-journal-index.html#conrad

Here is a link that shows him with what looks like a 4x5.

[John Flavell]

Walter, interesting comments about Michelle McNally. I didn't know the Times didn't have a director until she was named. It seems it was a culmination of what Howell Raines had intended before he was sacked as the editor-in-chief. And, she's been promoted to AME since.

There's also a recent posting here by a photo editor, Bruce Moyer, from the Hartford Courant who did a project with Type 55. He mailed a couple of issues and I'm really taken with them. I'm using those to show our editors what the possibilites are with the large format look. We're starting a magazine soon and I see opportunites.

Many of us journalism types didn't buy into the idea that digital replaced film. I'll make the first photo this Saturday, with the 4x5, for a project I'm starting. It is a great motivator.

[Ellis Vener]

Dan Wnters who shoots for the New york Times magazines does 99% of his work with 4x5. At least he did when I einterviewed him this time last year for a profile in "Professional Photographer" magazine.

Last year Dan used an 8x10 camera for the photos, still lifes and portraits, for a Texas Monthly magazine story on an unslolved murder from the 1960s where the prime suspect is a (now retired) priest.