Photo Era Favorite & Why

[Tin Can]

I prefer 1895 era, the switch from glass plate to 'flexible plastic' was well under way, so I can use either

Bicycles and cameras a great combo, the era was amazingly innovative

I like how X-Ray film emulates Ortho, so we have a good supply!

I love soft focus, it is very similar to how I actually see, since a child. 'Fuzzy'! I don't see detail.

I do cheat with Flash Bulbs and Strobes

[Vaughn]

Love the one you're with...

[Jim Noel]

30's and 40's The period when I was first learning about photography. I'm still learning.

[John Kasaian]

Right now. Because :o

[Bernice Loui]

Fave Foto era in the past, 1980's - 1990's.. when film was tops and the San Francisco bay area Foto district was a buzzing hive of creative energy.

Fave Foto era is now and tomorrow as there are creative images to be made, memories to be shared and much more.



Bernice

[Bernice Loui]

~Nature will NOT be Denied.


Bernice




"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for men if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

[LabRat]

I'll go with the pre-WWII era... High quality, affordable gear mass produced for an expanding market...

An example is enlargers... Decades before, was a high tech item (often custom), for the very few... Heck, decades before most homes didn't even have electricity yet!!!

Steve K

[Merg Ross]

30's and 40's The period when I was first learning about photography. I'm still learning.

I'll pick up where Jim left off. The favorite era for me was the 50's in the Bay Area. I was thirteen when I stared photographing in 1953, and was surrounded by a large group of extremely talented photographers. Many had been students in the photography program started by Ansel Adams at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco shortly after the end of WWII. There was a tremendous energy provided by a faculty including, Ansel, Dorothea Lange, Imogen Cunningham, Minor White, Edward Weston, and Lisette Model among them. The students were diverse in their work, many later well-known, and several nonagenarians still alive. I am in touch with them, and grateful for their inspiration and encouragement in my early years. Research of that time will lead you to a book of the CSFA, rightly named "The Golden Decade." It was for me.

[John Layton]

I would echo Merg's sentiments just about to the word...except that I came along a bit too late (1954), and on the wrong coast!

[Duolab123]

Today. View cameras are reasonably priced. I love the 40s and 50s era. I have a bunch of Kodak books from that era. I've got Deardorffs from that era. I can afford things today which is nice. I've usually got things when others want rid of it, that's a 21st century thing.

[Michael Graves]

I'd vote for the EPA era. Some outstanding work came out of a lot of photographers who might not have otherwise reached the heights they did.

[Vaughn]

...Bicycles and cameras a great combo, the era was amazingly innovative...
So was a short 6-month period spanning 1986 to 1987 in the southern hemisphere...in my history book, anyway. ;)

Pancake Rocks, NZ, 4x5 on a bicycle adventure

[John Kasaian]

I'd vote for the EPA era. Some outstanding work came out of a lot of photographers who might not have otherwise reached the heights they did.

EPA or WPA?
:confused:

[Ethan]

the cenozoic era's got to be my favorite, can't say I know of much photography from other eras though

[Michael Graves]

EPA or WPA?
:confused:

Heh, heh, heh.... We be typists and sh...stuff.

[Pat Kearns]

I'll continue to let Michael and John duke it out over the EPA or WPA.

I read many books when I first started in photography. The era that struck me the most was the work done by the photographers for the FSA under the direction of Roy Stryker. The images of The Great Depression, The Dust Bowl, and The Migrant Camps solidified the great names of Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks, Arthur Rothstein, and many other photographers.

[Dugan]

Wow, good question...
It would be a toss-up between the 20's-30's-40's Hurrell-type Hollywood studio portraits, and the Brett Weston/Richard Garrod/Oliver Gagliani/ Merg Ross aesthetic.
They stimulate different parts of my brain.

[John Layton]

...in the meantime - Vaughn, please pass the syrup! (as long as its Vermont maple!)

[Vaughn]

...in the meantime - Vaughn, please pass the syrup! (as long as its Vermont maple!)

I only have Canadian, but there's a place there to sit your plate down right there in front.
Don't remember how long it took me to compose this...only cropping was by the negative carrier. Probably long enough for buzzards (if there were any) to wonder if something was dead under that black cloth. I remember thinking about the amount of sky, and if I was going to be able to get some waves in. Oh, man...thirty-five plus years ago!

But how does one get a Place onto a piece of film, along with as much of ones self as one can?

But semi-back on topic. One does have to love (as an American, anyway) the wild west era. My favorite being Peter Britt of Jacksonville, Oregon, who arrive during the Gold Rush. He told a hotel-keeper's daughter, "Madam, if you wish a photograph of a beautiful face, you shall have to bring one." I think he was the only photographer in town...

[Merg Ross]

Wow, good question...
It would be a toss-up between the 20's-30's-40's Hurrell-type Hollywood studio portraits, and the Brett Weston/Richard Garrod/Oliver Gagliani/ Merg Ross aesthetic.
They stimulate different parts of my brain.

The first three are high on my list for inspiration. Thanks for the mention, Dugan. Heard from Dick Garrod a couple of weeks ago, now 97. Wonderful person and photographer. Remember his exhibit in Hayward, Vaughn?