Friday, August 2, 2013

14x20 Deardorff Camera?


At some point in the future I will probably buy a very large format view camera. I found one today that would be a blast to use, especially for wet plate, making tintypes and ambrotypes with thing would be freaking awesome. The other possibility is to make large 14x20 normal negs ($20+ a shot, HP5 is available) and then do alternative process prints such as platinum.

Kenro Izu uses this camera for his wonderful work, its a 32 pound $7750 14x20 Deardorff. One side benefit of going large like this is there are interchangeable backs for 8x20, 12x20 and 11x14. I am most interested in the 11x14, could do vertical portraits, only horizontal shots possible with the Deardorf 14x20.


This is all speculation and years away but if I could get a camera like this with the 11x14 back I could do a Buddha image (statues, paintings etc) series in Thai/Laos/Burma/Cambodia and also my "Lost Innocence" (broken hearts?) head shot series.

Anyway this is all a bit of a dream but sometimes these things percolate for years and then you end up making photos as a result. For example a dream from 20 years ago got me making photographs in Thailand, maybe these new thoughts will lead to something also.


New 14x20 Deardorff View Camera