Gandolfi Precision 8x10 inches - Studio Portraits, Lisbon, 1996

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Hictiandro and Mário

When I bought the Gandolfi Precision, back in 1996, I was anxious to try it under the control of studio lighting. It was also, in a way, an easy form of getting acquainted with the camera and it's characteristics. Although I had sometimes used a Linhof Technika, I was at the time much more familiar with the monorail design, making most of my work with a Sinar camera. It was also advantageous for me to get used to handle the much bigger film size in the comfort of my darkroom.

So, I just got some T-Max 100 and looked for some "volunteers" at hand: in this specific case, my third son Mário (now 20!) and his friend Hictiandro.

All black and white negatives were developed in Kodak HC-110, dilution B. I should maybe further write, that I never was a great friend of HC - 110... (Mr. Ansel Adams, will you please forgive me?).

To shoot these b&w images, I equiped the Gandolfi with the Rodenstock Apo-Ronar 480mm MC, and the session took place on the 4th of April.

Irina

A short time later, I decided to experiment with some color in 8x10", so I ordered some Fujichrome Velvia 50. As I was looking for some colorful subjects, I thought that it might be interesting to photograph some african girls. The only thing I asked them, was to pose with something dressed that they would think of as typical african (living here for long, or already born in Portugal, I got the feeling that they hardly knew what that could be... Well, they tried...).

I like these photographs, because I think that you can instantly perceive that the girls were amateurs, however they shone and possessed a lot of dignity. I am sure, that they had never posed in front of such paraphernalia, at least in front of such a big camera, but they seemed to have no problems whatsoever about that, they looked joyful and confortable at it.

Lots of natural talent!

I am very thankful for their patience and goodwill. They were very, very kind.

(I have already posted another photograph resulting from these sessions on a former post dedicated to the immigrants. Please be so kind and take a look, if you wish so).

The main light was in all cases provided by a Hensel Autolight.

The transparencies and negatives were scanned with an Epson Perfection 4990.

I can honestly assure you, that looking at a Fujichrome Velvia (with a lupe) in this format is just breathtaking and thrilling!!!

Well, at least for this old school fellow of yours... I hope that you enjoy.

Good night, sleep tight.

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Raúl Lino - "Casa do Cipreste", Sintra, Portugal (1993)

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Working on assignment for Editorial Blau, I came to know this absolutely wonderful project from 1912, in the small town of Sintra.

This is actually one of the houses that Raúl Lino (1879 - 1974) built for himself, and is known as the "Casa do Cipreste", a true icon of the portuguese architecture (maybe I should say "in Portugal" instead... In fact, I think that it looks more german than portuguese, what is natural, thinking that Lino studied in Germany).

Being considered by some to be a controversial personality in our 20th century cultural life, Raúl Lino cannot be ignored for sure. His importance and influence still lasts until today.

"Casa do Cipreste" is definitely a magic place full of charm and warmth, a place of outstanding beauty and harmony.

A place that I would undoubtedly love to call home!

The rectangular images were shot using a Sinar F2 camera in 9x12 cm/4x5 inches, equiped with various lenses manufactured by Schneider in Germany.

The square photographs were shot with a Hasselblad camera in 6x6, using Carl Zeiss lenses (Distagon, Planar and Sonnar types), also made in Germany.

Lighting equipment was made by Hensel in Würzburg, Germany.

Light meters by Sekonic and Minolta.

Ektachrome film by Kodak.

I would like to dedicate this post to the architect Luiz Trigueiros from Editorial Blau, a person to whom I owe a lot in personal and professional terms. He was the one who brought me to professional architectural photography, when I returned home from Germany in 1990. After some small misunderstandings that lasted for some time, we are now on good terms, and I was happy to see him and his wife again.

P.S.: Raúl Lino also designed in 1925 Teatro Curvo Semedo in Montemor-o-Novo, wich you might know from some other posts that I have done.

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Silke in Mannheim, Germany, August 1989 (Agfachrome RS 1000 - Part Two)

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All photographs taken with a Nikon F or F3 camera

(probably equiped with a 200mm Nikkor lens),

using Agfachrome RS 1000 film.

On a recent post, I showed some images shot with the old, and long discontinued, Agfachrome RS 1000. As I have stated before, I found it's coarse grain wonderful for some subjects in 120 size, although a little too rough on 35mm film.

A couple of days ago, I happened to find these images taken on the same sessions, using the smaller format, so I thought it would be interesting to post them for you to compare.



I didn't want to fumble with the old slides, so I didn't take them out from the cardboard mounts I used to display them. That is the reason for the brown color of the film frames.

I hope that you enjoy...


P.S.: These photographs make me ponder that color photography has gone a long way, even in a very recent past...
As you know, I am a true film believer, but I must agree that digital easily surpasses (from a technical point of view) film quality at ASA/ISO 1000...

Anyway, I still think that film grain can be a loveable form of expression!

I will forever be a film crusader!!!

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I wish I could...

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I wish I could forget the weird darkness which spreads all over this land,

I wish I could say good-bye to all this pain and these sleepless nights,

I wish I could turn my back on this endless Winter,

Put a candid smile on my face and say hello to the world.

Me, being wild with a Minolta camera, somewhere in Bretagne, France, 1977

(And yes, that is film grain!)

For the aficionados: I am holding a 303b in my hands. The lens must be the 1.8/35mm Rokkor that I have mentioned on the former post.

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The Minolta Years - Nene Valley Railway, UK, July - August 1978

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Sadness and sorrow seem to be out of fashion these days...

So does happiness and joy...

So does pain and innocence...

Or whatever feelings we might experience, for that matter!

We are well-drilled to be cool and sophisticated...

When I started growing up, photographically speaking, I cared about feelings and emotions and I cared about the human condition.

I had big respect for people who struggled for authenticity and visual integrity in their photographic creations and in their personality.

People like Josef Koudelka and Henri Cartier-Bresson were my unquestionable heroes.

I strived to follow their paths, I wished that I could "suck" the influence of their oeuvres in my brain and blood, in my vision and character!

So it hurts a little, to see a certain highly regarded brand of equipment, holder of a long photojournalistic tradition and heritage, introducing a new camera in a very nice brochure with a "reportage" (that's their chosen word, not mine!) about a "boxer" (the inverted commas are mine!) in Cuba, that could be taken out of a high-gloss fashion magazine.

I will admit that the photographs even look nice, but I could bet that the fighter and his girl-friend came straight out of a modeling agency...

Even the old cars and houses so typical of the cuban images we got accustomed to see, seem to be washed and a little bleached, sterilised.

Yes, it all looks so clean and sophisticated... It all looks so fake!

Minolta XM, Kodak Tri-X, Kodak D-76 1+1

Travelling all the way up to Scotland, we came across Nene Valley Railway completely by chance.

Being an enthusiast of steam locomotives and old trains, although not a cognoscenti one!, I couldn't resist but stop and photograph for a couple of days.

So our trip took a little unplanned intermezzo, with an extra opportunity to enjoy a little nostalgia.

Time washed my faint memories away (I even started thinking that Nene Valley was in Scotland...), and very little reminisces here and now, but these simple images from my beginnings as a photography lover.

Minolta XM, Ilford HP-5, Kodak D-76 1+1

Minolta XD-7, Ilford HP-5, Kodak D-76 1+1


Minolta XD-7, Ilford HP-5, Kodak D-76 1+1


Minolta XD-7, Ilford HP-5, Kodak D-76 1+1



Minolta 303b, Ilford Pan-F, Agfa Rodinal 1+50



Minolta XD-7, Ilford HP-5, Kodak D-76 1+1



Minolta 303b, Ilford Pan-F, Agfa Rodinal 1+50



Minolta XM, Kodak Tri-X, Kodak D-76 1+1



Minolta XM, Kodak Tri-X, Kodak D-76 1+1



Minolta XM, Kodak Tri-X, Kodak D-76 1+1



Minolta XM, Kodak Tri-X, Kodak D-76 1+1



Minolta XM, Kodak Tri-X, Kodak D-76 1+1



Minolta XM, Ilford HP-5, Kodak D-76 1+1



Minolta XM, Kodak Tri-X, Kodak D-76 1+1

Minolta XD-7, Ilford HP-5, Kodak D-76 1+1

Minolta 303b, Ilford Pan-F, Agfa Rodinal 1+50

Minolta 303b, Ilford Pan-F, Agfa Rodinal 1+50

Minolta 303b, Ilford Pan-F, Agfa Rodinal 1+50

Minolta 303b, Ilford Pan-F, Agfa Rodinal 1+50

Minolta XD-7, Ilford HP-5, Kodak D-76 1+1

Minolta XD-7, Ilford HP-5, Kodak D-76 1+1

I can't recall with exactitude which lenses I owned by the time of this trip, but I only used Minolta Rokkor lenses in my Minoltas: 21mm Rokkor, 28mm Rokkor, 35mm Rokkor, 50mm Rokkor, 50mm Macro-Rokkor, 135mm Rokkor, 80-200 Zoom-Rokkor, whatever!

I found the quality in most cases to be very good, and I still regret that I didn't keep the XM camera (Minolta used different nomenclature according to the different markets, so a Minolta XM, in the european market, could be called a XK in the USA, the XD-7 was also known as the XD-11, etc.). Together with the very fine 1.8/35mm Rokkor, it made a specially pleasing combo in my opinion. I loved it!

The XM tried to compete in the professional segment with the Nikon F2 and the Canon F-1, although it was by far not so dependable in my opinion, I must add! Nevertheless, it was a very interesting camera with aperture priority automation, as well as manual mode of course, and you also could buy a (much more expensive) motorized version, the Minolta XM-Motor. It looked very nice, but I never managed to get my hands on one, so I can't speak for myself.

The SRT models were rather robust and efficient cameras (the electronic models were prone to have some occasional failures, at least my cameras did have them...).

If I remember well, the XD-7 was the first multi-mode exposure camera model on the world market that supported multiple automatism: you could choose between aperture priority or shutter priority (a hard to believe "luxus" on those days...), as well as fully metered manual mode.

A rather well balanced piece of equipment, it was developed in conjunction with Leitz/Leica, and the body served also as the basis for the Leica R4, if I am not wrong (another example of the collaboration between both companies, was the smaller Leica CL, the body beeing made by Minolta in Japan, and the lenses by Leitz in Germany. As a side note, the Leica CL was my first Leica ever!).

I also owned a Minolta SRT 101, which was a somewhat simplified version of the 303b, but, as it seems, I had left it at home and didn't bring it along in this trip (I doubt it, but it can also be the case that I bought it at a later time...).

On those days I was a big fan of the light meters made by Minolta too, and used two different models of Minolta-Autometer extensively. I still have and use the Minolta-Spotmeter M.

As I have said before, I gradually traded my Minolta equipment for Leica-M stuff, a change that greatly influenced my way of shooting, although I should further say that that change was due to the distinct characteristics of both types of camera (Single-Lens Reflex versus Rangefinder), and not necessarily due to a eventual difference in quality between both brands (that also existed...).

I hope that you enjoy these memories from my own long vanished personal past, and from a bygone era.

See you soon!

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