No matter what I read or see of the great monochrome photographers, whether it be Ansel Adams or Edward Weston or Michael Kenna or Edward Steichen or perhaps Donn McCullin or Vivian Maier, I don’t seem to learn enough to be satisfied with my own efforts. These people are some of the greatest proponents of their arts but sometimes their superb work undermines rather than inspires. I think these are normal but sometimes very frustrating limits on our aspirations. As I was taught when I had motorcycle racing aspirations, if you see someone in your mirror that wasn’t there last time you looked, give way, because they are better than you.
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SLR and JLR
I took a photo in August 2012 with a telephone camera whose depth of field and field of view are neither much different to those obtained by whatever device was used by one of my great-grandfathers in July 1888. We’ll call him JLR because it’s easier than John Loftus Robinson. This shot was taken when visiting Hardwick Hall with my father FRR on an excursion following ancestral footsteps documented by a series of photos taken by JLR between 1880 and 1893.
And while we’re abbreviating, so you don’t get confused between JLR, FRR and SLR, I’ll say that SLR is a standard acronym for the single lens reflex camera.
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