Reify and Redact: The First Selections

Having made the decision that my Reify and Redact portfolio would contain only twelve prints, I've begun the selection process. Actually, the first few selections were easy and, in fact, have already been shown and described in this blog.

Hands of the Violin Maker is my first choice and not just a sentimental one.

Wallace is also an easy choice as is George and Greg.

Lake McDonald Sunrise is my first choice for a landscape photograph.

Although Chair, Boots and Pitcher are presented and discussed together, by my rules I must count them separately. In that case, I've decided to include only Chair in the portfolio.

Now the really difficult selection job begins.

George and Greg

My father-in-law was an imposing figure of a man. Born in tough times, a tough place and tough circumstances, at age 65 he was still a big, strong man. My son was just learning to walk. I was learning to use a 35mm single lens reflex camera and to process my own black-and-white photographs. On this day in 1975, all those factors aligned so that this moment was captured.

My camera was a Konica Autoreflex T2 and the lens was a Hexanon 52mm f1.8. I’m certain of this because it was the only camera and lens that I owned at the time. The film was Kodak Plus X and was probably developed in D-76. The print was, well, not very good until, years later, I scanned the original negative and processed the scan in Photoshop.

The Konica Autoreflex T2 had a semi-automatic exposure mode. First the shutter speed was set and then the camera automatically selected the aperture to match that speed. I don’t recall whether I used my Konica’s auto-exposure for this particular shot. Probably not, because the window is badly overexposed; the automatic exposure probably would have done a better job on the window but at the expense of the main subject. I probably pointed the camera down at the floor, got an exposure reading and set it manually. I’d like to think so anyway – even if I missed the best exposure setting.