I don’t quite remember what exactly got into me. Something about wanting some square sprocket images or something, if I recall. Or maybe I got tempted by one of the 1-2-6 days (December 6, January 26, 12 June) somehow. Who knows. But there I was, one day in October, watching some of the FPP videos on 126 film and cameras, particularly the one about the Fakmatic 35 to 126 converter thing, in which they listed a few cameras that worked well with it. Most of the recommended cameras, like most 126 Cameras in general, were very simple, boxy Kodak Instamatic models, with a single aperture and shutter speed, but one piqued my interest due to its somewhat smaller, curvier lines and big red shutter release: the Agfamatic 200 Sensor.
Continue reading “Enter the Agfamatic 200”Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans – Expanded Edition
I knew The Americans was one of the major photobooks, nay, major photographic achievements of the 20th Century, and said nearly as much in my short comments around the unboxing I shared several years ago. I’m not quite sure who on Twitter turned me on to Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans – Expanded Edition, but when I heard it had many of Frank’s contact sheets from the Guggenheim-funded project, well, I hunted down a beat-up used copy,* which then sat in my “to review” pile, or on the new “to review” shelves, for way too long.
Continue reading “Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans – Expanded Edition”Claes & Coosje & Mom & Me in KC
It was sometime in the summer, 2018, Mom and I took a road trip, from her house in NW Arkansas, up through Springfield, MO, to Kansas City, MO and KS, mostly stopping at used bookstores and whatnot. I don’t recall the impetus for it. We stayed the night in Springfield, I think, and so there must have been something she or I or we wanted to do, but I don’t really recall what…
Continue reading “Claes & Coosje & Mom & Me in KC”Mimi Plumb – ‘Landfall’
Landfall is Mimi Plumb‘s first book and what a first book it is! After a couple of decades teaching photography, she began to scan and show her work from the late 1970s through to today on her website. One of the guys from TBW saw some of her earlier work at a frame shop, of all places, they later met, and a couple of years later, they all got together and made this book.
Continue reading “Mimi Plumb – ‘Landfall’”Farhana on the Beach
While writing my rather dismissive review of Martin Parr’s Beach Therapy, I had the idea to see what sorts of beach-type photographs I had in my archive. Turns out, not too many, really. I don’t live near a (real) beach, and other than the 3 years I spent in Holbrook, NY, I’ve never lived anywhere near the ocean. While I don’t mind the beach, I far prefer the mountains, the foothills, the prairie, the forest. I’m a country boy, more or less.
My darling, adorable wife, on the other hand, spent 20 years in Exeter, UK, within minutes of the ocean. Before that, she was in New Jersey, and before that, in Bangladesh. She doesn’t mind mountains, foothills, prairie, forest, but far prefers the beach. Sadly, we live about 5 hours from the nearest beach, and closer to 6 from a beach you’d actually want to walk on, where the water doesn’t smell of chemicals and there aren’t balls of tar and dead fish washed up on the beach. So we’ve had to make do over the years.
Continue reading “Farhana on the Beach”Martin Parr – ‘Beach Therapy’
Photobook Collectors of a certain age probably need a Martin Parr book in their collections. Being, myself, of that certain age, well, I’ve long thought I should probably have a Martin Parr book in my library and, well, with Beach Therapy that box has been ticked.
Continue reading “Martin Parr – ‘Beach Therapy’”John Whitmore – “Choosing & Losing” #00
“Choosing & Losing” is a new zine series from John Whitmore. I discovered it thanks to Twitter, and I got in on the ground floor, jumping in with a “Print is Not Dead” subscription: £20 + shipping (to the US it’s another £20) for four quarterly zines, plus a newsletter and some other perks.
Due to a software bug, I ended up getting a perk from the next level up—100% off of one of his fine art prints—and scored a very nice print as well. Woot! I’m glad to help Whitmore discover bugs in his process, and equally happy to have the print. It’s going to look nice added to my fledgling, largely unframed, print wall.
Continue reading “John Whitmore – “Choosing & Losing” #00″