4x5

By James Robertson

April 10^th, 2021

Don’t call it a lockdown project

I spend a lot of my time photographing people, but much less of it “making” portraits. I prefer my subjects engaged in a task and distracted from my presence as much as possible, but by shooting on a large format film camera I am forcing myself to work more purposefully, to seek out and engage with my subjects.

Large format film cameras are very simple. A lens at one end and a sheet of film at the other, connected by a bellows. That simplicity and the freedom it brings also adds complexity. The ability to change the angle of the lens and control the plane of focus is at least a choice, while the process of focusing on a ground glass screen, metering light, closing apertures, and cocking shutters is a deceptively simple list of actions.

The image is composed upside down and back to front - exactly as the lens projects it - and with my head under a black cloth and my eye to a loupe I focus the image on a ground glass screen that sits exactly where the film will, physically moving the lens closer or further away from the film.

The act of taking a photo becomes a ceremonial one, which continues through development of the film the outcome of which is uncertain until the final moment when the film can be removed from the developing tank and hung up to dry. Once the negative image has revealed itself there is another delay until it can be scanned or printed: the entire process fighting against the immediacy that seems to define modern life.

The next step will be contact printing my negatives and producing a final print of the exact size as the negative. Not only will it keep the entire process analogue, but it will allow me to complete the journey from exposure to print.