[LargeFormat] Introductions

[rstein]

Dear Friends,

     I have deliberately hung back in the rush to embrace this topic. This
is not modesty - it took time to note and file all the responses from list
members and correlate them with other sources of information. Even in this
computer age it still takes time to get bank account details and PIN
numbers, even if you have the right contacts.

    This at least has the effect of letting one contemplate the nature of
the human mind. Did you know that two of the list members, Brock and Philip,
have the same identical PIN number for their  various savings accounts? And
that you can access these from a public telephone booth if you preface the
actual number with a 1 800 number routed through Spain? How did they think
this one up? Do they regularly remove money from each other's accounts and
then claim bank error? Do they have bullfight posters in their respective
darkrooms?

    Likewise, what has become of the Orphan's Relief Fund that Clive
administered? I can find no trace of it - I have been searching all the
cupboards at his place and tapped the skirting board and nothing. Big mice,
but no money.

    Still, I suppose I really should introduce myself to you - you have been
reading my posts for several years - those of you that have not put a strong
filter on them - and it is only fair to let you see the full picture.

    One of the advantages of being a dental surgeon is you can approach the
rest of your life with the knowledge that people do not hate you as much
there as at work. They may recoil a little when you try to shake their hand
with a rubber glove on, but this is momentary. The thing to do is remember
that there is work and there is home - you must stop yourself from peering
into mouths with little mirrors when introduced at cocktail parties - it can
unsettle people.

    One of the advantages of being a large format photographer who
photographs belly dancers and glamour girl types in his own studio with a 4
x 5 Linhof or Ratty Old Nagaoka is the studio is air conditioned and has
coffee making facilities. Lighting is largely at the command of the
photographer, or at least at the command of the bossy friend that came along
with the dancer. Backdrops can be arranged and effects can be acheived.
Artistic freedom - at least the freedom to do as I am damn well told - is
paramount. Tantrums are encouraged. Mine.

    Of course the disadvantage to being the aforesaid studio glamour type is
not all subjects are really as glamourous as they think they are. You can do
a great deal with diffusion, but when it comes down to shooting through
gauze, and then through smeared vaseline, and finally through
linoleum....well....I do try to encourage the girls. I am positive. I
exuberate. I also sweat a lot.

    Please note that I am turning 55 on the 1st of April and I expect a
present from each and every one of you. Sheet film is always acceptable.

     Uncle Dick