The linked article only says that the camera might have been _Washburn’s_ first aerial camera.Originally Posted by mdarnton
The linked article only says that the camera might have been _Washburn’s_ first aerial camera.
The first aerial camera was whatever Nadar used for the first aerial photographs, which were views of Paris c.1875. On wet plate no less!
However Mr. Washburn's many accomplishments (along with his great aerial photographs) are not to be discounted. Finding his abandoned gear is quite a feat.
The story of Washburn's camera left behind on that glacier is legendary among quite a few Indiana Jones types.
Like Sutter's cannon and Lewis & Clark's riverboat.
Fascinating objects of History that have been misplaced.
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
It's kinda like climbers finding Walter Bonatti's original descent piton near the summit of Gasherbrum IV. A legendary climber, a legendary peak in the Karakoram. And they took the trouble to look for it and prove that he really was there first. Or like me finding a whole set of points and skinning tools in a streambed from a mammoth kill, which had just washed out the last storm, and hadn't been seen by anyone for the last 13,000 years.
Cool stuff!
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
This https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/30/w...s-cameras.html story in the Times says the aerial camera is a Fairchild F-8. http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Fairchild_F-8
Holy Grail? Rare and desirable? Really?
It's the history associated with it that's far more valuable than the object itself. Abraham Lincoln wore a tophat no different than innumerable other men during that time. But which one would the Smithsonian want? Likewise, a specific camera used by Bradford Washburn might be prized by some venue like the National Geographic Museum. He not only shot that kind of camera from the air, but often from the ground on tripod at distant subjects, and even bigger aerial cameras too. How many people do you know who do that? The results were often stunning, not only due to his excellent compositions, esthetically, but for their remarkable detail, exceptional in that era.
Last edited by Drew Wiley; 31-Oct-2022 at 09:57.
It is described as his first aerial camera, not the first !
He made & sold prints of his work through Panopticon gallery in Boston for a few years before he died. They were not unaffordable at that time, for prints around 11 x14" size. i am very glad that I made the decision to order a print of 'After the Storm' ( climbers on Doldenhorn) , which I'd seen in Bill Brandt's book 'The Land'. The print came and it was exquisite both in tone and detail. It's been framed and on my living room wall for the last 22 years. I wish I'd ordered one of Mt.McKinley later, I was thinking about it but missed my chance.
"Holy grail" is highly subjective. One could argue that Ansel Adams's or Edward Weston's view cameras are the "holy grail" of view cameras. Washburn is simply the best known (and arguably best) of the arctic aerial photographers. Previous ownership and history has a lot to do with the valuation of "things."
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks