The majority of the photographs on this site were taken in the
1960s and 70s with Nikon F 35mm cameras on Kodak tri-x and
plus-x film which was developed in Kodak D-76 diluted one to three
with distilled water and used only once. Our favorite lenses
were Nikkor, 28mm, 35mm, 85mm, l05mm and 200mm. We also
had a 35mm Pentax camera with a Taukmar 2.8 300mm which was
used only ocassionally but to great effect in shots such as the
perspective compressed KKK at the Capitol shot. Almost all of this
equipment was purchased at once in 1965 by mail order from Hong
Kong in response to a small ad in the back of a photography magazine.
This represented an enormous investment and risk at the time, but one
that paid off (and most of the Nikon equipment is still functional today,
over 40 years later).
The 4x5 inch view camera window shots and portraits by John Phillips,
were taken entirely on a short stretch of Baldwin Street between
McCaul and Beverley Streets in Toronto between 1969 and 1974.
He used a Calumet view camera with a 5.6 180mm Rodenstock
Sionar lens. The 4x5 inch sheet film used in the Calumet was
Kodak plus-x and it was also developed in hand agitated and
3 times diluted one time use D-76.
Our original silver vintage prints made at the time the pictures were
taken were made on double weight 8 x 10 and 11 x 14
inch Kodak Kodabromide glossy fiber paper, developed in
Kodak Dektol diluted one part Dektol to three parts water. John had the
good fortune to be Henry Wilhelm's room mate at Grinnell College and
received an early and unforgettable indoctrination into proper darkroom
technique. This included film and print washing and storage
procedures which Henry had recently learned at a workshop with
Ansel Adams (not to mention the Zone System for proper exposure).
Henry, of course, went on to devote his life to the care and
permanence of photographic materials and is now a world renowned
expert on the topic. He is currently devoting much of his time toward the
examination of the permanence of inkjet produced prints through
Wilhelm Imaging Research, still located in Grinnell, Iowa. Proof is in the
pudding, and 40 years later our negatives look like they were
developed yesterday...
Our modern day prints are made from 5400 dpi (that's a lot...) negative
scans which we digitally manipulate only to achieve technical and tonal
quality. We don't create montages or Photoshop the content. We
humbly consider our photographs to be historical documents which
should not be altered. Our modern prints are all made from digital
files using contemporary archival pigment based technology.
Images licensed for publication are available as high resolution files
(usually around 4,500 x 7,000 pixels) which can be FTPed or mailed on
CD). This resolution exceeds that of the originals and provides all the
quality available from our 35mm negatives. The 4x5 scans are even
much larger. To get some idea what these numbers mean, consider
that the largest images in our stock photo galleries on this website are only
around 320 x 480 pixels.
For a visual representation of what high scan resolution means to print
and reproduction quality, refer to our Resolution Comparison Page.
RETURN HOME
|
