Off The Wall

[Alan Gales]

I'm simply in awe! What fantastic photography. I agree with Frank. The portraits are my favorites also but all the photos are inspiring.

[mdm]

Its probably safe to retire now.

[cjbroadbent]

I'm really touched by the nice things you've all said. And grateful for the super boost to my waning ego.

I'm still surprised at just how plain useful Large Format has been. I'm talking about functionality, not quality.

Frank - the simple portfolio site is straight out of Picasa. It takes ten minutes to make. I tried Photoshop web pages laid out the same way, but they come out looking too neat. I like simple but not neat. White is less precious than back.
There are no links to the tear-sheets - I don't want lay-people to know that I do it for money. And I keep the contact address inside the first image to avoid bots and spiders.

As for bad pictures - surprisingly few (some included in the tear-sheet site).
The rule is: Never ever take a bad job. I can spot a bad job in ten seconds on the phone. Jobs are made good jobs at the meeting before the shoot.
But I have shot plenty of mistakes. I'm slowly binning nearly twenty thousand LF negs and trannies of mistakes.
20 sheets of film per shot as a rule; I usually take borderline risks with light and exposure (to avoid plain vanilla), and with lab tests, variations, blinks, steam, errors and stuff (digital has changed all that) there is usually only one sheet that is any good. If it is a tranny, I hand it over and never see it again. So the colour shots on my portfolio are mostly mistakes.
Another rule is: If you show two trannies or prints, the client will always pick the bad one. Show three and he will ask for a fourth. Show more and he will ask for a re-shoot.

David, I'm being retired by my youngers and betters who have no concerns about safety. My last job this month is about recycling, which seems appropriate. The studio is full of real junk - cans, bottles, aluminium lingots, chewed glass and plastic. I also have to shoot the noble end of the cycle - hooks, chains, coffee machines, bike gears, egg cartons. I'm going to follow suit and recycle as a portrait photographer.

[BillA]

Dear Mr. Broadbent,
Looking at your tearsheets, several of the images look very familiar.

I may have worked on your Maggi images (prepress) and I'm pretty sure that I retouched a shoot where the art director was trying to imitate your work for a packaged soup account.

As a designer, I used to keep a large filing cabinet filled with inspiration; layouts, reproduction methods, great examples both typographic and photographic.

I'm pretty certain that I have viewed your work numerous times as I sat on the train heading to various cities for press checks. (The spread with leeks, beans and cabbage looks very familiar). One thing I most admired was the classically painted backgrounds and the way you merged the subject with the background, with a beautiful chiaroscuro effect. They were elegant images always, classy enough to raise up the mundane, but just stopping shy of pretentiousness.

You may find this hard to believe, but those tearsheet images in my files always stood out in my mind, and stayed with me for years. Those photos, along with some beautifully produced books were things that I aspired to, kept me going when I had to draw monkeys and silly bears for Kellogg's in Hungary. Later, I took up intaglio etching and bookbinding because of the images in those files.

When I first laid eyes on a large format camera, your style floated in the back of my mind; the food shots specifically. When I spent weeks and months reading, scrounging and repairing the 4x5, it was your images that popped up in the back of my mind's eye. The light, the backgrounds, the painterly composition that echoed so many of the still lifes I saw hanging on castle walls. That's what made me pull that camera off the shelf.

I've admired your work for some time. I would say it's safe to say that your style is one of the reasons I've taken up large format photography. Thank you.
Bill Anderson

[John NYC]

Amazing stuff. Thanks so much for sharing that!

(And by the way, I am still busy practicing with my one light and umbrella -- though it is a strobe).

[CCB]

Hi CJ,

So, when are you going to offer us a chance to go and study with you.

I'm sure many here would love to participate in your master class.

CB

[Brian C. Miller]

CJ, in photo #22 there is someone with an 8x10 photographing a still life.

Is that you?

[Ari]

Cent'anni, Christopher!
Wonderful to look at, and you've always been generous and gracious in answering any and all questions, no matter how small. Thanks

[cjbroadbent]

Hi CJ,
So, when are you going to offer us a chance to go and study with you......CB

As I've said before, there's nothing much to teach that won't fit in a short post. You just sit down in front of a table and shove thing around until they all fit together in the available light. Finally, you put a camera where you were sitting and expose some sheets waving a piece of cardboard to vary the mood in the foreground.
The only background you'll ever need is a wall, painted over from dark near the window to light on the far side.
Failing a window and a wall, a single umbrella and a bed sheet on a stretcher will do. But nothing beats a real window to give a feeling of breathing space.
Tear-sheets 6 and 34 and many more for Brides were done in rented space with a window and a wall. Usually my tight NY budget (the mother of invention) didn't cover lighting equipment.
Brian, Yes, That's me and my Gandolfi.

[kev curry]

Two words... Masterful and Inspirational!