Professional photographer, late 1940s

Nov 05, 2009 22:47

Vintage camera enthusiasts, help me out! My character is an American documentary photographer in 1949. He specializes in location work, nearly always outdoors and often in rough conditions. He's taking a solo trip to Mexico (probably by bus and train rather than by car, though that could change) to scout and shoot various subjects. I'm trying to ( Read more... )

1940-1949, mexico: history, ~photography

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reynardo November 7 2009, 06:58:14 UTC
My father went around the world in 1954, and his gear wasn't that new, so it'd be appropriate for a lot of what you need.

1) He mainly took slides for colour work, and even for B&W. Recently he scanned in a whole heap from the early 60s and the quality was amazingly good still - see this for an example. No laughing. Ok, I've grown a little. But black and white, yes, they'd prefer the larger stock back at the newspaper but could blow up easily form a negative if necessary.

2) He had one main camera, not an SLR, that took 35mm film, and he had a light-meter that I adored playing with as a child. He didn't use flash as in the 1950s they still hadn't got past flash bulbs - one-use only bulbs that sat in a reflector. They weren't as bulky as the ones from the 1930s though - see here for some pics. Luckily, at least you're past the era of the flash-holder with a striking wheel and a tin frame and a small pile of magnesium powder in the middle!

3) Even a professional photographer would be unlikely to take his developing kit unless either a) he had a car to transport it (those bottles of developer could get mighty heavy) or b) he wasn't sure of getting the film back to civilisation before the pictures deteriorated. He'd be more likely to set up an arrangement with a chemist or photography shop in Mexico city and arrange for them to develop the film, or maybe even have a hotel room with a bathroom that he could use himself at night to develop things.

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madame_manga November 7 2009, 19:19:55 UTC
Thank you! For some reason light meters had slipped my mind, even though I actually used one decades ago. Yeah, my own dad shot a lot of slide film in the '60s, saying it was better than prints -- certainly it was cheaper when you took as many pictures as he did. Naturally he's gone digital now and never deletes a single shot. :)

Yes, I'm thinking I may have to let my character have a car -- it would solve any number of transport and storage problems. He could even fit it up as a portable darkroom. I was imagining that he could do a lot of his basic B&W developing on the spot, especially if he were off in the wilds somewhere, and make his contact sheets as well. But yes, when he's in Mexico City there's no problem finding good labs for printing or color developing. He's just got to be careful with his expenses!

I'm not certain how fast film quality would go downhill under bad storage conditions, like a hot car or backpack -- I do remember that being a concern in the 1970s, but I don't know if that was more the case with 1940s-era film. This is obviously an avenue to check out...

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