The Collector

[Drew Bedo]

The Collector...or, The Path Not Taken . . .

Back in the mid 1990s I belonged to a local camera club. I was relatively new to LF photography and slowly feeling my way around on a boot-strapped shoe-string budget. One club meeting took place at a member's home where he showed us his newly completed showroom for all his cameras.

Wow: This was a dedicated room, maybe 20x30, with built in glass display cases full of minty to pristine examples of notable cameras from Minox, through Leicas and Hassle lads . . .and every odd-ball model and format imaginable. Cabinet space below held seconds (and thirds) of the items under glass.

Displayed the center of the room were two huge ultra-large format studio cameras. Yards of bellows held up by intermediate adjustable frames. Everything was glowing wood and leather. Each had a ground glass measured in square feet. Well, this was twenty-five years ago . . .my best memory now is that they were just sooooo BIG. They dominated the center of the display room like the twin guns of Navarone.

Weeks later I ran into him at a local camera show. I suggested that we could make a few pictures with one or both cameras. He hesitated. I told him that I was worrking at a major teaching hospital where I had access to X-ray and MRI films in large sizes. He was not enthusiastic. I told him that I could get the films developed in their appropriate chemistry in the dedicated automatic processing equipment at the hospital.

His eyes began to scan left and right like he was speed-reading something just above my head, His blink rate went above 120/min, then his forehead broke out in beads of cold sweat and heblurted, "You mean take pictures?" He turned his back and walked rapidly away.

Now THATS a collector. . . .Not that there is anything wrong with that.

[andrewch59]

I have two monoliths of which you speak, both Hunter Penrose process cameras, only one has the film holder, so I did exactly that, made up a frame to hold xray film and took a photo. Its not exactly a portable camera, but I guess at a push I could load it into my van, but very impracticable. I am just mesmerized by the skill and workmanship used to produce such a beast, lots of dovetail and finger joints and finished in sleek coatings of varnish.

[Bob Salomon]

I had a friend in the 60s who was a very highly positioned engineer at IBMs headquarters in Westchester.
He had a thing about Nikon. Not the camera, particularly, but their lenses.
He had some cabinets built with various sized drawers to accommodate the different sizes of the Nikon lenses of that era.

Each drawer was felt lined and he went so far as to make up spreadsheets of all Nikon lenses. These spreadsheets were distributed within IBMs headquarters and any time an employee was going to Japan they would have the sheet with requested lenses listed, the dealer in Japan to buy from, their address and directions to the store.

Whenever I would visit him he would bring the cabinets over to the couch in his den and show off the latest lenses and carefully handle them with cotton gloves.

In all the years that I knew him, up to his death, I never saw a photograph taken by him! Just lots of lenses!

[Two23]

That is what I don't want to become. I have my share of old cameras and lenses, although nothing requiring a 20x30 room! Just enough to sometimes draw the ire of my wife. I've come to think that if I'm not using it, it's really not doing me any good. I'm not a collector, I'm a photographer who enjoys using camera gear of any vintage!. So, I've been selling off my "lesser" stuff and just keeping the best, and making sure it's something I'll actually use at least once every 18 months. What I want is a few very nice items from every period 1840 to present. I often shy away from buying "mint in box" type stuff because I want to use it and that involves some risk. Yes, there is some joy in finding & buying a very nice copy of a 1931 Baby Rolleiflex, but for me the real fun comes from learning how to use it and then getting some nice shots with it.


Kent in SD

[Drew Bedo]

I have a Kodak "2D" (8x10) nd a Wista-made Zone VI (4x5) along with a Leica M-3 and several legacy or heirloom cameras that can't be sold. For the older 2D and to a lessor extent the Wista, the concept of ownership is a little uncomfortable. Wether I use them regularly or not, I am more their steward or conservator than I am their owner. The 2D was made from the thirties through the seventies (I think that is the approximate range of years). My specific 2D is I tghink from the mid fifties and so is nearly as old as I am.

As they say, "With the Good Lord will'n an the crick don't rise . . .", these cameras will be able to maqke photographs in someone else's hands long after I am gone.

For this reason, I feel that there is a strong place for collectors in the larger relm of photography .. .but the OP is a fun story to tell.

[DrTang]

I snaked a retail display case from a closing store, and that is filled up with all kinds of cameras and accessories that I never shoot...mostly because none of them work - they all look pretty good though

I picked them up cheap because I liked their looks or mechanical genius or because they are so ugly (yes...I have a collection of ugly cameras) so it matters not to me they do not work

I have plenty of old cameras that I do use, however..but they are in camera bags or in my studio

[Nodda Duma]

Yes I’ve seen that in other hobbies and interests: collectors either see themselves as investors or, more commonly, as curators preserving the items for future generations to enjoy.

Interestingly enough, collecting is a trait which dates back to prehistory... it is well-known that prehistoric American Indians collected the artifacts (usually arrowheads) of even earlier American Indians. Arrowheads spanning thousands of years have been found together at archaeological sites, at the same depth in the ground and predating that particular time period. Obviously belonging to some prehistoric collector. I always thought that was pretty cool.

[Jim Galli]

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[Bob Salomon]

I seem to be the only one in my family with the collector gene. I passed it on to one of 3 daughters. So, guilty. I have antique Ford's, old porcelain signs, a gasoline pump I'm currently restoring, and of course large cameras, but mostly it's the lenses. And with the camera stuff it seems slightly different than with the other 'junk'. I seem to enjoy the latent possibilities of what I could do, if I wanted to, but of course, I'm busy with other priorities, so I don't.

You know, a guy with an 8X10 Hyperion could be a force to be reckoned with in the art world. Or a Series IV #4 Pinkham Smith. The possibilities are what I enjoy possessing. My lens collection is not on display. Most are locked up in a 1700 degree / 2 hour safe.

No one accuses me of not making images though. At one of the workshops I piled up finished prints and displayed the lens that made them for everyone to get a feel of what the possibilities could be with the different styles.

And here's one made Monday last;

What is the difference between a collector and a hoarder?

[Dan Fromm]

What is the difference between a collector and a hoarder?

According to my late friend Charlie Barringer, a collector has a rationale for accumulating what it accumulates. A hoarder accumulates mindlessly.

To me this seems a distinction without a difference.