Days in Ocean Grove. Historic ice cream parlor. Paul Goldfinger photo. Tri-X film and a silver gelatin darkroom print made by me.

Portrait of Eileen. Film (Tri-X) darkroom print by Paul Golfinger. ©

Camelia River in Ft. Myers, Fla. Digital photograph. December, 2019. There are many variables which go into the appearance of this image. It is seen here only as a digital file made with my Leica Monochrome 246, although a paper print is possible if a negative is made (purists do this) or a digital printer is used. Paul Goldfinger photograph. ©

By Paul Goldfinger,  Photo editor @Blogfinger.net

Years ago I did only color photography. I did well making pretty pictures, some of which wound up winning contests and being displayed internationally by Pfizer Labs.   But I got bored with it and decided to do black and white photos. Eileen got the job of documenting our family’s history in color.

So I took courses and learned how to create high quality black and white prints in the darkroom.  That was much more challenging and rewarding than merely sending the film to a lab. Half the battle with black and white negatives becoming fine prints is in the darkroom.

Some of you who have been interested in fine-art photography know that most of the greats of the past worked only in black and white.

I became a Leica B&W photographer, one of a specialized group that used those fabulous German cameras with their remarkable lenses.  Many of those professional artists were photojournalists, becoming expert at street photography using those small and unobtrusive 35 mm cameras. They bridged the gap between news and fine art.

Remember Robert Capa?   He was on assignment for Life Magazine.  He took his Leica along when he landed with the first wave at D-Day.  There is a remarkable story about that.  Here is a Blogfinger link:

Robert Capa lands on D-Day

One of Capa’s D-Day images. He won a Pulitzer for this courageous work.

Cartier Bresson carried his Leica under his raincoat while sitting at cafés in Paris. All of a sudden he would stand up with his camera and take a picture.  Then sit down and get back to his espresso.   He called it the “decisive moment.”

So for years I only did B&W, although there were some exceptions.  Basically I preconceived my photos by looking at the world in black and white.

A great debate eventually developed over which was better:  film or digital, but that became academic since high quality digital color and black and white images could now be obtained.

In my case, before Blogfinger,  I continued to do only film work and I built a darkroom in my 1880 OG house. It was historic because photography was invented before OG was founded. Remember Matthew Brady during the Civil War?

But when Blogfinger began, I saw that digital images could look spectacular on the Internet.  That’s when I closed my darkroom.  No more hours breathing in chemicals, on my feet, and no more matting, mounting and framing prints.  And I entered a color phase once again, along with B&W.

I like to display my images on BF or by having digital black and white prints made by a fine-art lab, usually in small sizes and then I dry mount them on photo mats.  This way they can be placed on a shelf without any glass or plastic….just the basic  image which can be picked up, changed,  and moved about easily–very retro and satisfying.

But now, as Blogfinger becomes more artsy, I am going back to the days when I shot mostly black and white.  It takes some getting used to by the photographer and by those looking at those pictures.

I think black and white images generally  contain more richness, soul, subtext, subtlety, and spirituality.  And it takes me back to when black and white was all we had, kept aloft by all those S’s.

And now I have to figure out how to get the most out of a new digital camera that only takes black and white images. I sold my film cameras—there is still a market out there for them, and the pendulum is swinging back somewhat.  Art students are learning how to do darkroom printing, sometimes pursuing historic materials such as light sensitive gold or platinum.

Below is the latest M series Leica digital camera–the “Monochrom.”  It is purposely designed to look like its ancestors from the 1930’s, but it is incredibly complicated with software menus out the wazoo.

I have one, but it will take time to excel with it.  You will be seeing more black and white on Blogfinger, but feel free to submit color images if yours are very good.  I will too.  I still have a fine color camera for the 4th of July parade and other “color-essential” events.

Leica M “Monochrom” digital camera. 2019.  High speed Leica 35 mm. lens “the Summilux-M.”

ANNA CARAM:

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