Superb images here, must have been taken with some sort of folder.

raydm6 said:
These are excellent! I've never seen them before.

A little more background here. And a small article: Gordon Parks' WWII Standard Oil Images Still Tell a Powerful Story

I saw his 2015 exhibit at the Boston MFA titled: "Back to Fort Scott". It was excellent as well.

Thanks for the link.
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When I looked at them again, I zoomed into the image of the hatted man in the window, the calendar on the right is dated 1944. So these were taken at the height of the war, interesting thoughts about what must have been going on inside these mens heads at the time…..
 
What's interesting is all the grease that was wafting in the air and how it deposited on the lighting extensions. He mentioned in a letter:

“Photographing the grease plant at Pittsburgh was a pretty nasty job. It was nasty because in every building and on every floor grease was underfoot. The interiors in the older buildings were extremely dark and absorbed plenty of light, so it was necessary to use long extensions and many bulbs. The extensions, throughout the day, were covered with grease.”

-Gordon Parks, letter to Roy Stryker, March 1944
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^^ Ahh nice thank you.

Would he have been using Optar lenses in Graphex shutters?

I have a Graflex Optar W.A. 3 1/2" (90mm) f/6.8 and a Graflex Optar 135mm f/4.7 both in Graphex shutters. I never used them. I saw them at a yard sale mounted to metal lens boards and picked them up for a song.
 
I'm a fan of Gordon Parks work and have a few books of his photos. I believe he must have know where that secret camera store was that people like Walker Evans, Cartier-Bresson, Friedlander, and others bought those special cameras that enabled them to make their great photos. Do you think if we could get cameras like they used that we could be able to make photos like they did? Or, could there be more to it than the camera?
 
KoNickon said:
Why a folder? Not a Speed Graphic? (I call that a press camera, not a folder.)
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OK, next time I will post something like this in the Pin Hole camera department.
If they had a BELLOWS camera only department you might have just enjoyed the post and kept quiet !!!
You simply can not please everyone, but go ahead and make a bid deal next time, that is if I bother to share something here ever again.
 
KoNickon said:
Sorry if I offended. Thanks for posting those pictures.
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Well I just think there are times when we should look at the beauty, especially in older images. There is on here, NO WHERE TO POST little treasures like these articles to share with each other and there should be.
I all honesty I kind of knew it was most likely a press camera that took the images, but no one is hardly posting 120 roll film or large format images anymore here, so I slapped it in the folder section to try and get something going again.
I just hit 65 last month and use older cameras, I refuse to change away from this beautiful medium but I do have a digital for clicks.
Really wanted a Linof but “HER INDOORS” would go ballistic if I produced one, already moans about how long it takes me to make an image.
Cheers and sorry I got hot under the collar. You Sir are not the first to comment like this when I have posted an article. I think it’s now four times but I just think that these things should be shared……and now another Gin and Tonic needed before dinner is served……..
 
In USA it was big, even war photogs were trained and equipped with press cameras. And I doubt he would use some folder as hired photog.

I have restored Graflex Anniversary once. It was no parts needed, just CLA. After seventy something years.
It was in production at same time photos were taken by Gordon Parks.
 
I'd like to get a Graflex with rollfilm back and Kalart rangefinder (which I think was made near me in CT). I forget the name of that model. Probably a TLR would give as good or better images, but just to have and use a classic like that would be fun. Parks had to have had an elaborate lighting setup for those shots.
 
KoNickon said:
I'd like to get a Graflex with rollfilm back and Kalart rangefinder (which I think was made near me in CT). I forget the name of that model. Probably a TLR would give as good or better images, but just to have and use a classic like that would be fun. Parks had to have had an elaborate lighting setup for those shots.
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Yes, the lighting is absolutely amazing. Parks was a true master.

The small 2x3 Graflex cameras with a roll film back are so much fun to use. For what I shoot, I don't bother using the rangefinder. Mine has deteriorated so it's very difficult to see the image.
 
Spectacular photos and prints. First class - and they tell a story (and a story within a story).

Gordon Parks has my total admiration.
 
Einstein said:
You simply can not please everyone, but go ahead and make a bid deal next time, that is if I bother to share something here ever again.
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My response, which may have offended you, was based solely on the heading "Superb images here, must have been taken with some sort of folder." The implication being the merits of Gordon Parks photos had something to do with the camera he used and not his intuition, eye, and heart in determining what point to be make with his photos and how to best do it.

Who has had someone look at photos that you worked hard at and were very proud of and have them comment "you must have bought a very expensive camera?"
 
Thanks fo the link to the great pictures.
I worked in a steel mill in Pittsburgh. The grease plant looks like a tough place to work.
Park's pictures have some things in common with Eugene Smith's.
Both of them used photography to tell us something about the people in the culture we live in.

I just yesterday finished reading Park's novel, The Learning Tree.
Good book - worth a read for anyone.
 
Nothing brings out heartwarming social justice like war propaganda photos

Most like Gordo used a 4x5 Speed Graphic with pack film and flash bulbs like 99% of other photographers. But because he was special the ground glass images were upright.
 
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