Originally Posted by
Monty McCutchen
As Oren kindly states I shoot 20 x 24. I shoot equal parts film for pt/pd, pt/pd gumovers and wet plate collodion (alumitypes and ambrotypes and the occasional glass negative). I’m a quiet but consistent 20 x24 evangelical. I love the format. Love everything about it. The difficulty. The cumbersome hassle. The overcoming. The lack of logic. The uselessness of it all. But they are my windmills I’m chasing and a person needs something useless in their life that is theirs and theirs alone to chase—outcome guaranteed or not. There are plenty of reasons not to do 20 x 24–ignore them and jump in if you have the desire. The ground glass is a world to get lost in that invites magical visits. Process gains equal footing to product with the 20 x 24 format. Portraits become true collaborations with your sitter as they become connected to the event and to their role in the outcome. Still Life’s take on the attributes of intimate landscapes, landscapes an entry into other worlds. You have to turn yourself over to the format which allows for a certain feeling of lost time but when you get in a rhythm the results are truly sublime. I say go for it detractors be damned.
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