Back to the Progression to ULF. I was attending photography class one day. I am 70 and graduated from college the first time in 1964. The professor said Lois Conner was coming to town, would show her 7x17 China work, critique our work and give a platinum workshop. I was shooting an RZ67 then.
Along came a view camera class, a 4x5, an 8x10, Michael Mutmansky came to town to install the 8x10 enlarger he had built and then sold. Michael had 7x17 work of a railroad workshop in View Camera Magazine. I said bring your camera. I think you will like the twenty abandoned green houses, weathered by Lake Erie, that I am shooting in 8x10. I asked him to compose and think out loud and I was sold. Later I met Dick Phillips but he had run out of the fifteen 7x17s he made. Michael introduced me to Clay Harmon who wanted to sell his Phillips 7x17 so he could have multiple formats on his Canham. Then came a baby jogger, up to four mile walks from the car, a CPP-2 Jobo, and Rollo Pyro in tubes. Fred Newman says this year’s allotted film will be here Wednesday. Good thing, I only have 25 sheets left in the freezer.
John Powers
