In 2006, I began to photograph with a large format Ebony camera, using black and white film while still shooting with my 35 mm or Hasselblad cameras. Using an 8 x 10 inch or 4 x 10 inch Canham view camera is a deliberate choice and one that has required much perseverance.
It is nothing at all like using a smaller format. Everything on the camera moves, shifts, tilts or swings. A lens may be the size of a point and shoot camera. If you have never seen a View Camera, think of Ansel Adams.
Once the 12 pound camera is on the tripod, the work under the darkcloth is an intensely contemplative process. Everything that is in my photographs is important and there for a reason. Extraordinary detail is visible on these large negatives. On the ground glass of the camera where I compose and focus my photograph, the image appears upside down and reversed.
However, what inspires me to stop to photograph is seldom the image that I take. It is this vision that continues to evolve.
