8x10 Scenes
In 1980, I bought a Kodak Master 8x10 camera from an old-school photo studio that was closing. I was inspired by nineteenth-century photographers like Timothy O’Sullivan, Carlton Watkins, Gustave LeGrey, and an early French photographer, Felix Bonfils. Bonfils had a studio in Beirut, where he made a living by photographing attractions across the Middle East and selling picture souvenirs to British and European tourists, so they could show their friends back home that they had seen the pyramids in Giza or Jesus’ tomb in Jerusalem, or the Temple of Jupiter in Baalbek. For scale, he always included a small human figure dwarfed by the landscape.
The Kodak was a very demanding muse and became my go-to machine for making art. I would prowl with about forty-five pounds of equipment—the camera, a heavy tripod, film holders, and more—come on a scene that resonated with me, set up the camera, and wait for the right person to complete the scene. Sometimes, no one came along and I would fold up everything and move on. Other times, I would find the picture complete when I arrived, a gift.
Kodak Master 8x10 view camera
