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Thread: Does large format inhibit your creativity?

  1. #1

    Does large format inhibit your creativity?

    Theoretically the large format camera has the potential to be a very creative to ol. With all those movements the possibilities would seem to be endless. Unfortu nately I see little evidence of creative or original work and much obsession wit h perfect front to back focus and other formulae.

    Whilst I see much exciting work on 35mm and medium format I am surprised by the lack on large format. I admit it could be that I am not looking in the right pla ces!

    Does the large format camera actually inhibit creativity and if so why? I am par ticularly interested in photographers personal work, not their commercial output .

    Your thoughts would be much appreciated.

    Keith

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Apr 2000
    Location
    Burnaby, BC
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    179

    Does large format inhibit your creativity?

    My photo's ... none of them are in focus -- worked hard to do it to. Here's the thing. If your photo is the target, you can machine gun with a 35mm and after 36 exposures get a hit, or you can use the view camra like a morter ... and miss. It hurts to miss, but you can snap of 3 cannisters of film and still miss. I like to take my time. I could be just as bad with 35mm. So, I'd have to conclude with, you can be just as good or bad with either, it's your style that counts. Dean
    Dean Lastoria

  3. #3

    Does large format inhibit your creativity?

    Although I shoot medium-format, not large-format, I do find that using a view camera tends to cramp my style, at least a little.

    In fact, for much of what I'm shooting these days -- abstracts, urban landscapes, etc. -- I've gravitated toward using my Minolta Autocords (a '50s vintage TLR) instead. They're not only smaller, lighter and quicker/easier to use, they have a lens that imbues my images with an aesthetic quality that I've been unable to duplicate with any other lens. Better still, since I compose my images as squares, they don't have to be cropped later. However, when movements are necessary or I need to focus closer than 3.5', then I dig out my Toyo 23G and drag it along with me instead.

    In a perfect world, I'd probably substitute a three-lens Hasselblad Arcbody outfit for both cameras but as my photography is still a non- income producing hobby, the cost is too high for me to justify.

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Nov 1999
    Posts
    740

    Does large format inhibit your creativity?

    Keith, quite the reverse! The secret is to use movements only when necessary and for the camera not to get in the way of what your trying to make/take/create. When I first got my LF camera I wanted to use movements all the time!! Sometimes I could have taken the photo just by focussing!! Remember the mantra "its not the camera but the person behind it, its not the camera but the person........" Regards Paul

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Jun 2000
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    177

    Does large format inhibit your creativity?

    Keith,

    There is a lot of creativity with large format, but done in the context of what a large format camera's strengths are. That is a very precise rendering of the subject in greater tonality, depth and detail than other formats. If I want part of the image to be skewed, have limited depth of field in focus, converging parallels etc, it is my decision with the controls of the camera.

    Recently I have started using a Holga 120 plastic camera for the fun of it, after seeing some really wonderfull work by a couple of friends. I am attracted by the focus- sharp at the center and softer as you move to the edges. I like the idea that you never know exactly what you will get with each shot. That you have settings for focus and only two aperatures permanently set at 1/100. In other words it is the total antithesis of LF. No thinking, planning the shot, choosing lens, camera position, aperature filters etc. Just compose and shoot.

    Of course the Holga is not my pinhole camera, not my Nikon FE or FA, not my Mamiya 330 and not my 4x5 or 8x10 camera. Each camera and format promotes a certain style of creativity with its strengths.

    One needs to be careful about comparing work across formats. Most photographers choose a camera and format because it is the right tool to make their statement.

    One is not going to see the more fluid and spontaneous work done in 35mm with LF because it isn't possible, unless you are very adept at using a Speed Graphic. Some subject matter can be photographed with both medium and LF, but if the photographer's vision includes 30x40 or larger prints, he is probably going to choose LF to acheive the final results. Sometimes you just need to have a different "tool" to acheive your vision on paper.

    If you do not read them already, View Camera has a fairly good sampling of work by contemporary LF photographers, and Black and White Magazine frequently highlights photoraphers in the Spotlight section who use LF in a variety of ways.

  6. #6

    Does large format inhibit your creativity?

    In my opinion, not at all. In fact it is the reverse. As one poster said, you can machine gun 35mm and still not get what you want. Large format makes you work your subject, makes you slow down and makes you see differently. The poster above said that he started with a Holga... After being persuaded to stop being such a technical shooter, a few friends handed me a Holga and told me to just shoot, don't even look through the view finder... I said what a waste of film and time. Boy was I wrong! I shoot corporate and sometimes there is no room for "creativity" and that is where I refresh my batteries and shoot with my 4x5 and Holga in the great outdoors. Some of us, commercial shooters, persue a different avenue like Kallitypes, Platinum and other alternatives that require large negatives and this is another way to be more creative in our everyday lives... at least this is my story. Large format shooting helped me be more methodic and focused in what I was doing in every format!

  7. #7

    Does large format inhibit your creativity?

    It's not the camera, it's the photographer who's creative. LF movements foster creativity by allowing much more and more precise control of all elements, but it comes down to the individual photographer and his style, and what he's comfortable working with.

  8. #8

    Join Date
    May 2000
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    18

    Does large format inhibit your creativity?

    Hi Keith,

    Good question. I suppose it depends on individual tastes and definition of what "exciting work" is. Each format has its advantages and disadvantages. If there is one thing I have learned from photography, it's that there is always a trade off. I may gain an advantage in one area with a particular format but give up something else in return. I think this is what contributes to it being so challenging and enjoyable though. Perhaps you could provide some links to some images that you feel are exciting and of interest. Then I could get a better idea of where you are going with this. I will admit though, that many of us large format photographers fall into the technical rut and sacrifice creativity as a result. But again. I feel you have a valid question.

    Thanks,

    P

  9. #9

    Join Date
    Sep 1999
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    449

    Does large format inhibit your creativity?

    It ain't the format, it's the G.D. tripod!

  10. #10

    Join Date
    Jun 2000
    Location
    Redondo Beach
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    Does large format inhibit your creativity?

    I've got all three formats now so I would say this, you see the shots of Kertez, Eugene Smith, Scavullo, Gordon Parks, Avedon, and plenty of others, what was original or distinctive or imaginative about the work was independent of format.

    I'm excited as hell about my 810 and its gigantic negative, which is why I've just started to get into contact printing with it, but 35mm and MF are formats that also have their strengths that aren't always that readily apparant.

    I dislike firing off my 35mm gear 'machine gun' style in a somewhat blind attempt to 'come up with something', rather I use my 35mm gear to first get the shot, and then bracket and recompose and try things. The happy accident where you try something and get an interesting result you can use for later photographs is what I live for, when I'm not trying to do a portrait.

    You don't have a big neg with 35mm, but for me it's the 'you've got the shot, now try something different' format, without the time factor and pressure of wasting the $2.00 a pop for B&W, $7.00 a pop for color in LF(810).

    MF is of course still rollfilm, the films a little cheaper but the negatives bigger but you can still try things, and I'm not saying you can't try things with LF, it's just harder to do. Sure there are folks who use a 35mm like a movie camera and just run through a roll with the expectation that they'll be something there.

    Nowadays you can do that with some MF, but regardless of format, I like taking the time to look through my camera and size things up and making reasoned decisions along with some idea for choosing a particular exposure.

    You can't sell 35mm and MF short, even though if I had the chance to go back to the exact moment of every keeper that I've gotten in the other formats and redo them with a big LF negative, I would. That is the exact reason you have different formats, 'out and about' when I'm carrying around a 35mm, I like to hang my 35mm under my armpit, and most of the time nobody notices I've got a camera until I raise it up to take a shot, which gives me a tremendous advantage that I wouldn't have with the other formats.

    In terms of the issue of originality with LF, I would refer you to the 'Keepers of Light', a book on alternative processes which inspired me to get into LF and contact printing, which has LF work by the masters as creative and fresh and original as anything ever done in the other formats.

    I recently saw an exhibit in LA of Edward Weston and there is a Masterwork called 'Summer Sunshine' which has the freshness of shot that was 'caught' in spite of the fact that it was done in LF. Perfectly composed, exposed, and executed.

    In addition to the commercial,landscape, and architectual work that some folks do here, there is portrait and street scene work, and the whole spectrum of subject matter in LF that you would find in 35mm/LF. There may be a style and a subject matter in LF you may not agree with or find boring, but if you check out everything in LF as I've done, and the work of the masters since the beginning, it's all there in whatever flavor you like.
    Jonathan Brewer

    www.imageandartifact.bz

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