Stephen Longmire's Book on Sag Harbor, Long Island

[Shawn Rahman]

Has anyone had the opportunity to loot at Keeping Time in Sag Harbor by Stephen Longmire?

This is one of the very few books I've ever purchased by a photographer that I've never heard of before. Having spent 8 formative years on Long Island about 20 years ago, I have very fond memories of its North Shore, and this book, which I came upon by accident, hit me like a ton of bricks. It made me long for the East Coast more than I already am.

It looks like Mr. Longmire is a large format photographer. Most of the pictures include the negative frames with index numbers and film name. Let's just say the quality of the scans and printing is probably the finest I've ever seen in a color photography book. They are so sharp and clear, that I'm not sure all of the pictures are not contact prints reproduced to look like the actual thing. I don't know much about printing processes to venture a real guess - but it sure looks impressive.

Most fascinating are the architectural shots, including interiors of homes done better than I can ever recall seeing anywhere. This book really, really evokes a sense of the place.

Also, at the end of the book, Mr. Longmire pays attribute to APUG's David Goldfarb, who he states lent him his camera while Mr. Longmire's was being repaired. David: if you read this, I'd like to know what equipment you lent your friend - as this book almost singlehandedly makes me want to get into to LF.

Very highly recommended.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Stephen is a very good friend of mine. We both went to Deep Springs College in the mid-1980s, and he introduced me to large format photography one day with what I think was his 4x5" Wista. I decided it was too small and went straight to 8x10".

Anyway, he eventually settled on two Deardorff Specials that were of somewhat different vintages, and Ken Hough was working on them for a very long time so they could be 100% compatible with each other and share parts, and so that one camera would serve as a backup for the other. While this was going on, I lent Stephen my 4x5" Front-Moves Gowland PocketView and probably a 135/5.6 Symmar convertible and a 90/6.8 Angulon--nothing special really--and he may have used some of his own lenses as well. I also sold him a few boxes of Provia 100 that I got at a good price. More recently, I sold him a Sinar F with a bag bellows, but I don't know if he used it on this project.

Stephen's digital work is done by David Adamson in Washington, DC, under Stephen's supervision. Adamson is a real pioneer in the field of high-end inkjet printing and does fine work. I've seen some of the prints, but I haven't seen the book yet.

More important than his equipment, though, is that his parents had a house out in Sag Harbor where he spent summers growing up, and he had an arts residency in Orient, NY, so he really knows that area well--its architecture, history, and its people--and has strong personal connections to eastern Long Island.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Some of this work will be on display in Manhattan at the South Street Seaport Museum, October 10, 2008-January 4, 2009--

http://www.southstreetseaportmuseum.org/index1.aspx?BD=9612