Can anyone identify this camera and lens?

[Paramount bokeh]

Hi all, I am really into George Hurrell's work, but cannot justify the asking price in the UK of the Viera book (I have the Hicks/Nisperos one)... and wondered, out of idle curiosity, can anyone identify his camera and lens shown in these photos?

Thanks.

[cowanw]

I think the first camera may be Viera's calumet.
Otherwise Hurrell used
1-a 18 inch Verito
2- a kodak portrait lens
3- a goerz Celor
Regards
Bill

[Ken Lee]

If you perform a search in this forum for "Hurrell", you'll have a lot of fun reading.

To search this site via Google, click here (http://www.google.com/search?q=hurrell+site%3Awww.largeformatphotography.info).

[cowanw]

http://www.hurrelleditions.com/biography.html
Here's another shot with a ? cooke knuckler and studio camera
Regards
Bill

[DarkmansDarkroom]

Hi all, I am really into George Hurrell's work, but cannot justify the asking price in the UK of the Viera book (I have the Hicks/Nisperos one)... and wondered, out of idle curiosity, can anyone identify his camera and lens shown in these photos?

Thanks.

You can get the Viera book for pretty cheap on ebay or amazon.
at least I did.

And I though it was a Verito lense, not a camera?

[Paramount bokeh]

Darkman - the only copy available on ebay is £125 + £25 post (from the US) and on Amazon, it STARTS at £200 and goes up from there! Would love it, but those prices are plain ridiculous.

Thanks for the replies everyone - given me plenty to read!

[numnutz]

Hi - No need for those high prices - search here http://tinyurl.com/yfgxpoc (Addall books) for that volume priced $10 to $500

hope this is useful

nn :)

[Paramount bokeh]

He he (love the name nn)!

Thanks for this.... I'll have a look.

[Steve Hamley]

The first camera is a Kodak/Calumet/Orbit type monorail. The second in the right hand camera is likely a Linhof Super Color or something similar.

The lens Hurrell used to create the images most associated with him were done with a 16-1/2" Goerz Celor. Later it's mentioned that he used a Korona Field camera when he was in business for himself.

If you want to re-create the look, copying the gear won't work by itself. You'd come a lot closer by understanding lighting and retouching. But as far as gear goes, you'll need a camera with a large lens board - Sinar or larger (larger is better) to accommodate large lenses. You'll probably want a lens long enough to get the framing you want 8-10 feet from the subject, around 12" for 4x5 and 14" - 16" for 8x10.

Hurrell also allegedly shot his subjects fairly high key with no skin makeup and retouched, using the Celor which was a very sharp lens. Using this method will make a lot more difference than the equipment.

Cheers, Steve

[cowanw]

The picture I referred to in post 4 is a Eastman century studio camera and the lens was the Verito. This was a 1930 picture. His Celor was acquired in 1931.
Regards
Bill

[William McEwen]

The current issue of Black and White magazine has a feature about Hurrell, with a good selection of his photographs.

Also, there is a pretty good video about him that Ted Turner did quite a few years ago. It came out on VHS, and as far as I know, I probably have the only DVD bootleg (homemade) of it.

Canon sponsored the video, so toward the end you see Hurrell shooting a photo with a 35mm Canon. It's kind of funny, because Hurrell uses it like a view camera -- he stands next to the camera and doesn't look through the viewfinder as he fires away.