The Gowlandflex isn't for everyone

There is no doubt the Gowlandflex is a hard camera to work with. In my mind much easier then any other 4x5 camera but that's not saying much on the easy - hard spectrum.

I hope he doesn't mind but here are some photos of my friend David McLain trying to use my Gowlandflex. David's an amazing photographer but he is used to working fast and light on assignments for National Geographic. Check him out at www.davidmclain.com or www.mergegroup.com. These photos were taken by my buddy Kevin Stokes www.stokes-web.com

George Schultz at Stanford

I photographed George P. Schultz yesterday at Stanford University. The shoot was digital and involved a car full of gear, of course I had to bring the Gowlandflex along for some extra fun. This is a perfect example of the strength of this camera. We were shooting fast (I think we had 20 minutes of Mr. Schultz time) at multiple locations. There was no way I would have introduced a regular 4x5 camera into this shoot. With the Gowlandflex I was able to literally put the Canon DSLR down and pickup the Gowlandflex and make a couple exposures without really changing the pace of the shoot. My only gripe is with the evil Polaroid they really should be ashamed of their quality control. At $90 per pack I find myself throwing away 2-3 sheets of film that self destruct in the film holder.

-Michael

Artist Portrait

This simple portrait represents for me what I love about using Polaroid Type 55 (and the quality that started this absurd foray of mine with the Gowlandflex). The tonality and detail this film produces is just delicious. I'm not a technologist and I can't quantify what makes this medium special for me but what I keep coming back to are silky smooth midtones and the unpredictable nature of the emulsion (that's a nice way of saying developing flaws are part of the fun).

For those who care about this sort of thing, this image was made with the Gowlandflex and Rodenstock 180mm f5.6 wide open. The lens was synced with two Hensel heads in soft boxes, powered by a 1500ws Vela pack.

Cheers,

Michael Winokur

180mm

Many photographers who were making images with medium and large format cameras switched to the 35mm format when we switched to digital. This was both to adopt some of the best, fastest advancing technology and because affording a 30K medium format digital back is just not easy. Even though the cameras we adopted are amazing in their abilities and sophistication, there is a critical difference between them and their larger format sisters. A larger sensor (or piece of film) allows a longer lens while still maintaining that same 'normal' field of view. So a 35mm camera uses a 50 mm lens to accomplish what a 180mm lens does on a 4x5. The vital difference is that the longer lens has more compression and less depth. A quality I appreciate in portraiture.

I'm still hoping for a larger sensor (not in megapixles but in physical size) - right now almost 6 by almost 4.5 is the biggest thing going. I would like a 6x8 cm sensor so I can start shooting with my Fuji GX camera again. Meanwhile Polaroid 4x5s are good diversion from shooting dSLRs

-Michael Winokur Photography

First Gowland Type 55 images

Finally I have some photos to show. The issue with going hunting around for old techniques is you have to create a whole new work-flow to accommodate old technology. In this case scanning film. There was a time when I owned three film scanners, it was a great day when I got rid of them. Scanning has a whole series of problems associated with it. The two that always caused me the most frustration were dust and color consistency between scans. In adopting the Polaroid Type 55 as a tool, I've brought those two old friends back into my life.

The Gowlandflex was ready to work with just in time for my friend's wedding in Michigan. So, we drug it and a bunch of Polaroid film through airport security - you should have seen the TSA they didn't know what to make of the Big Ass Camera. Anyway, here are some samples from that series.

Type 55 has a particularly pleasing set

of mid-tones and I love the way it
renders a blue sky with the
occasional processing mark.

Big Ass Camera

Here is a photo of the Gowlandflex so you can see why I'm calling this blog Big Ass Camera. The person shown should give you a sense of its actual size :P

Learning to work with this new tool has been a challenge. When the camera arrived I was having trouble focusing it. After a series of emails to Peter I found out how to calibrate the focus mechanism and I also discovered the focusing lens was loose in its lens board. Now that these problems are fixed I'm starting to experiment with the camera and having some success.

At the same time I have been having some fun at TechShop if you notice the top of the camera I've created an adapter to use a right angle view finder from my Fuji GX680 (the best camera I've ever used) on the Gowlandflex. This is a great solution for location photography because it means I don't need a dark cloth to see the ground glass in bright light. The adapter is my own design and the parts for it were cut out of acrylic with the TechShop laser etcher/cutter. A brilliant tool (check out Epilog).

Now that I have the camera working the way I want It's time to start making some images and I'll share those with you starting with my next post. As I said when I started writing this is about learning to work with a new camera but the blog is also about creating a new body of work with Polaroid Type 55 as a medium.

Gowlandflex

I'm starting this blog to share my experiences working with a new tool. In the age of digital - and yes most of my work is digital - I'm starting to work with a very special 4x5 camera. It's a Gowlandflex you can learn more about it on Peter's website. To understand the camera you first have to know the limitations of most 4x5 cameras. Then you have to see this beautiful beast in person.

The downfall of most 4x5 cameras is the inability to focus once the film holder has been loaded into the camera. This means that if anything moves (even a few centimeters) the image will be out of focus. The genius of the Gowland camera is that it is essentially two cameras in one case - one to focus and one to expose. This means that capturing a decisive moment can be possible with a 4x5 camera. Now, of course lots of people have made amazing images with 4x5 cameras and recorded both decisive moments and real expressions - but still, not being able to focus at the time of exposure is problematic.

Why not digital - it's faster, easier, cheaper, more portable and on and on. Only thing is you can't shoot Polaroid p/n film with a digital camera and this film has a very unique, beautiful and unpredictable look to it. So, as much as this blog is about the Gowland camera it is really about the goal of working with Polaroid negative film.

Where are the photos? They are on their way. This is my first Blog entry and I need to get some photos ready to post. If you happen by here before that happens, well you can look at my website and see how far off the path the Gowland camera is for me.

Cheers,

Michael