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Thread: Mike Disfarmer Studio Technique

  1. #11
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: Mike Disfarmer Studio Technique

    Jim, retire to Mexico was my plan. Worked for my parents, before the cartels...not going there now.

    I like your analysis of sliding back, I have used a couple and they are the fastest way to shoot 2 for a portrait.

    I am going to try setting up some Disfarmer studio hints.

    Such as a wall between photographer and subject. I get to talking too much and screw everything up trying to 'relax' a sitter.

    Standing the subject close against a set backdrop is also good. Setup soft strobe with modeling lights. Maybe just set fixed focus. My glaucoma is getting worse, focusing will soon be over for me.

    And I have a new 8x10 slider to use.

    I could find almost the same people and clothes all over this ex-coal mining area. Getting them in my studio may be the problem...

    How far is Disfarmer from NOT ART?
    Tin Can

  2. #12

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    Re: Mike Disfarmer Studio Technique

    Quote Originally Posted by Randy Moe View Post
    How far is Disfarmer from NOT ART?
    I think he might laugh himself silly if he knew what a fuss people are making over his simple portraits 80 years later. But they definitely mesmerize . . . me, at least. I can look and look and look at them, but then, I am guilty of romanticizing that time frame. The honesty interests me. What you saw is what you got.

  3. #13
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    Re: Mike Disfarmer Studio Technique

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Galli View Post
    I think the odd size is because He used a sliding dual frame back on 5X7....
    FWIW, the brief bio on the ICP website says "Disfarmer used 5 x 7 inch glass plates early in his career and 3 ¼ x 5 ½ inch plates later".

    https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/c.../all/all/all/0

    There are plenty of pictures available to browse at the webshop site run by the Howard Greenberg gallery - perhaps some of these will give clues:

    http://www.disfarmer.com/gallery/

  4. #14
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    Re: Mike Disfarmer Studio Technique

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Galli View Post
    I think he might laugh himself silly if he knew what a fuss people are making over his simple portraits 80 years later. But they definitely mesmerize . . . me, at least. I can look and look and look at them, but then, I am guilty of romanticizing that time frame. The honesty interests me. What you saw is what you got.
    Yes... the fuss over them as Art is a bit much, but they're utterly absorbing as documentation.

  5. #15

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    Re: Mike Disfarmer Studio Technique

    If you're an Amazon Prime member they have an interesting video titled "Disfarmer"". It includes interviews with people he photographed and knew him. It won't answer all your questions, but it's worth watching.
    ____________________________________________

    Richard Wasserman

    https://www.rwasserman.com/

  6. #16
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    Re: Mike Disfarmer Studio Technique

    Finally something interesting on Prime!

    Thx
    Tin Can

  7. #17
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    Re: Mike Disfarmer Studio Technique

    Richard the Disfarmer movie is the best thing I have seen for a while.

    Excellent!

    https://www.amazon.com/s?k=disfarmer...f=nb_sb_noss_1


    Quote Originally Posted by Richard Wasserman View Post
    If you're an Amazon Prime member they have an interesting video titled "Disfarmer"". It includes interviews with people he photographed and knew him. It won't answer all your questions, but it's worth watching.
    Tin Can

  8. #18

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    Re: Mike Disfarmer Studio Technique

    My books are all at my shop, but I believe that one of them says that he used one of the normal folding Kodak roll film cameras with a plate back on it. He didn't seem much like the kind to go in for the fancy stuff.

    I'm a big fan, and my technique might be similar to him, though my results aren't. I just put people in front of the camera, tell them that after I focus they can't move, so they should find a post that's easy to hold, and that's what happens.
    Thanks, but I'd rather just watch:
    Large format: http://flickr.com/michaeldarnton
    Mostly 35mm: http://flickr.com/mdarnton
    You want digital, color, etc?: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stradofear

  9. #19

    Re: Mike Disfarmer Studio Technique

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Galli View Post
    Ever since I discovered Disfarmer I've had a fantasy about dis-appearing in some corner of Mexico with the '39 Ford truck and doing contact prints for food. Never to be heard of again.

    I think the odd size is because He used a sliding dual frame back on 5X7. Studio camera on wheels with 2 exposures on 5X7 plates and I recall the lens is also very simple, a Goerz Dagor 300mm. 12" on that constricted plate size is a good angle of view for portraits. Probably a Packard shutter behind the Dagor. Also likely 10 cents for a picture. He certainly captured a window in time magnificently.
    Jim, I've had that sort of fantasy off and on too, but have accidentally stumbled onto something similar enough to be kind of satisfying right now. The biggest difference is the money only goes out, nothing comes in. And it is hard to get people to come to you, so I'm setting up where the interesting people I know are. Plus, maybe not coincidentally, these are mostly country and small town folks.

    The directness and honesty of the pictures is I think what I find so appealing too. I was taken by surprise to find people that accept that in pictures today. Not asking for anything of them beyond the image of course helps.

    Lens I've seen specifically mentioned is a 12" B&L Tessar in #5 Betax, so that might make it a Ic f4.5. Not that it would have made a lick of difference if it was that or a Dagor. The other mentioned by Alan Trachtenberg in the same book, "Original Disfarmer Photographs" by Steidl, is said to be shorter focal length and is (mis)described as a "Wollensak Double Anistigmatic #6". I would guess a Series I or Ia of some sort, but maybe you can think of something else that could mean.

    An actual partition of some sort seems reasonably well established and kind of fits with the photo booth with supervision look of the pictures, but I've also thought along the lines of a studio camera. I'm curious to judge whether the camera could be moved forward and back and up and down. That seems likely, but is not obvious to me in the pictures so far. They really do seem to be 3 1/2 x 5 1/2" glass plates, which was a standard size regularly offered. Of course you could fit a back to any view or studio camera, and this again doesn't make a heck of a lot of difference anyway. I believe more than one person claims it was a camera he built, and I can easily see him adapting just about any ground glass camera to his needs and that would fit with everything mentioned.

    Anything that really mattered happened on either side of the camera.

  10. #20

    Re: Mike Disfarmer Studio Technique

    Quote Originally Posted by mdarnton View Post
    My books are all at my shop, but I believe that one of them says that he used one of the normal folding Kodak roll film cameras with a plate back on it. He didn't seem much like the kind to go in for the fancy stuff.

    I'm a big fan, and my technique might be similar to him, though my results aren't. I just put people in front of the camera, tell them that after I focus they can't move, so they should find a post that's easy to hold, and that's what happens.
    Michael, I'm glad to find some other fans here. If you have the "Vintage Prints" book I think that is the one where I read about some details about the studio setup. A few of the comments in the mostly excellent Trachtenberg essay in the book I still have don't really ring true to me. I'm curious if the other book draws any different conclusions. I'm talking here about the studio setup and his approach (and lighting), more than the actual equipment, though the partition is interesting. I think some of the writers are trying too twist things too much in order to fit the distant memories of the few people who remembered anything. Court cases have clearly shown the reliability (not) of eye witnesses.

    Oren, I agree on the art fuss, but am glad for it anyway since we would never have seen this work. Whatever else it is, I think it is a great use of photography. The ICP bio seems oddly inaccurate in general, especially considering the source. Still, I don't doubt that Mike Meyers shot some other formats early on, but it is when he became Disfarmer and shortly before that the work most people are intrigued by came along. The shifting style appears very consciously done, though we'll never know what was in his head. I don't have a reference to anything larger than 3 1/2 x 5 1/2" in those years. That was also a different location than the earliest pictures. It would be interesting to know when he abandoned the larger size, but it might well coincide with the depression. Once again it points up one of the things I like best about this work in that it wouldn't really make a difference in his pictures, just maybe that we wouldn't have as many to look at if he had not worked so cheaply.
    Last edited by Mark Crabtree; 12-Apr-2019 at 13:58.

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