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Retro Photo: An Obsession: A Personal Selection of Vintage Cameras and the Photographs They Take
With exquisite original photos and boundless enthusiasm, David Ellwand offers a love song to film photography and the vintage cameras that capture it.
From the pinhole to the Pentax, Retro Photo: An Obsession is a visual journey through the history of photography, highlighting some of the iconic cameras of the analog era. Appealing to those new to film photography as well as the seasoned professional wanting to explore new avenues, this beautiful keepsake volume showcases more than one hundred cameras from the collection of photographer and author David Ellwand, along with photographs he has taken with them. At once an accessible guide to vintage cameras, a highly personal take on photographic history, and a celebration of classic design, here is a book that takes the fear out of old-style photography and puts the fun back in.
From the pinhole to the Pentax, Retro Photo: An Obsession is a visual journey through the history of photography, highlighting some of the iconic cameras of the analog era. Appealing to those new to film photography as well as the seasoned professional wanting to explore new avenues, this beautiful keepsake volume showcases more than one hundred cameras from the collection of photographer and author David Ellwand, along with photographs he has taken with them. At once an accessible guide to vintage cameras, a highly personal take on photographic history, and a celebration of classic design, here is a book that takes the fear out of old-style photography and puts the fun back in.
212 pages, Hardcover
Published October 4, 2016
2 people are currently reading
36 people want to read
About the author
David Ellwand
69 books7 followersDavid Ellwand began his career in photography at the age of eighteen and uses a variety of formats and techniques in his books: black-and-white photographs, collage with hand-tinting, and full-color photography of handmade objects. He is also a mouse trainer, sculptor, and highly skilled self-taught computer artist. He lives with his wife and daughter in a village in West Sussex, England.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 21, 2017
In 1975 when I got my first teaching job I bought my first 35 MM camera and spend a couple years taking almost nothing but black and white photography, with little to guide me but my own instincts and my love of poring through old photography books I was buying. Maybe some of what I thought I understood about the aesthetic of noir films, Truffaut's 400 Blows, Bergman's Wild Strawberries. Of course I was a hack, a duffer with no training whatsoever (I took choir when I could have taken art in school, always), but I was sincere, and I still have stacks of those old photographs, and a few old cameras, some of them handed down from previous generations.
Ellwand does two things here to share his obsession with us: He shares many photographs of analogue cameras and equipment, and also shares photographs taken with such cameras! I loved it and revisited my old camera obsession through it!
Here's a sample of the book. Check it out:
https://www.retrophotobook.com
Ellwand does two things here to share his obsession with us: He shares many photographs of analogue cameras and equipment, and also shares photographs taken with such cameras! I loved it and revisited my old camera obsession through it!
Here's a sample of the book. Check it out:
https://www.retrophotobook.com
October 26, 2018
Like the author says: a personal obsession.
His, not mine.
I'm interested in vintage cameras and photography, but not to the degree of wanting to read all the technical details of every camera he's collected. I enjoyed seeing the photos he took with them, though.
The paged are thus:
His, not mine.
I'm interested in vintage cameras and photography, but not to the degree of wanting to read all the technical details of every camera he's collected. I enjoyed seeing the photos he took with them, though.
The paged are thus:
December 5, 2016
Growing up, it was quite the norm for me to see a camera in my father's hands and to be the subject of his many creations. Our family had a real treasure trove of photographs taken by Dad.
I even had the experience of helping him and learning from him in our old garage where half of it had been converted into a photo processing lab. Dad had a contact printer and an enlarger. He had rolls (huge rolls) of photographic paper. He had large jugs of the processing liquids, white enamel pans for bathing the pictures in the processing liquid, and a line stung at the end where the wet pictures where hung to dry.
Yes, photography was part of Dad's and my lives.
The opportunity to review Retro Photo: A Personal Selection of Vintage Cameras..... was one I simply couldn't pass up. I truly hoped to see Dad's argoflex in there. And he had one of those large "newman's" cameras that used plates for the images.
Retro Photo.... was a real treat to stroll through visually and mentally picture my Dad's enjoyment of his cameras and the pictures he took. No, I didn't find Dad's Argoflex nor his German camera pictured in the book. But treasures they are.
DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy from Candlewick Press to facilitate a review of my honest opinions which are freely given. I was not compensated. Giveaway prize copy is provided and sent directly to the winner by Candlewick.
I even had the experience of helping him and learning from him in our old garage where half of it had been converted into a photo processing lab. Dad had a contact printer and an enlarger. He had rolls (huge rolls) of photographic paper. He had large jugs of the processing liquids, white enamel pans for bathing the pictures in the processing liquid, and a line stung at the end where the wet pictures where hung to dry.
Yes, photography was part of Dad's and my lives.
The opportunity to review Retro Photo: A Personal Selection of Vintage Cameras..... was one I simply couldn't pass up. I truly hoped to see Dad's argoflex in there. And he had one of those large "newman's" cameras that used plates for the images.
Retro Photo.... was a real treat to stroll through visually and mentally picture my Dad's enjoyment of his cameras and the pictures he took. No, I didn't find Dad's Argoflex nor his German camera pictured in the book. But treasures they are.
DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy from Candlewick Press to facilitate a review of my honest opinions which are freely given. I was not compensated. Giveaway prize copy is provided and sent directly to the winner by Candlewick.
July 13, 2017
The subtitle says something you need to know. David Ellwand is not just an obsessed retro camera geek, he's also WAY enough photographer to get the fossil cameras to say things they say well. His image of hoarfrost taken with a peak of the evolution Rolleiflex, is one of the most beautiful, evocative images I've ever seen made by any process. He has managed to integrate a hands on knowledge of the technical history camera making with an aesthetic of what these artifacts can graphically say. He's worked at this...hasn't just pulled out his smart phone. He has even left us a few clues about how to integrate the craft approach of the past with the technology of hard and software of now and to come. He can think outside the box...or inside if need be. ISBN 978-0-7636-9250-6 Can be found in the Finger Lakes Library System
December 1, 2016
In this amazing book, we're taken on a visual journey of photography history, with information and full-page photographs taken by some of the cameras. I even found a picture of my husband's old Pentax on one of the pages, and one of my old Brownie Hawkeye. There are parts concerning film, many pictures of cameras and how they worked, and those wonderful full page photos. This book will be a treasure for both new and experienced photographers, and anyone who loves taking pictures and loves history.
December 22, 2016
What I loved about this photo book of analogue cameras is it not only has terrific images of a group of old cameras--it includes sample images from many of the cameras it covers. That is a different approach to this kind of vintage gear porn photo books that are out there. Plus, there are couple of cameras included in here that I now am lusting after to add to my collection--Olympus Pen F half-frame camera, I'm talking to you!
November 8, 2016
The pictures of the old cameras positioned next to the photographs they produced were cool to see. A bit more text would have been appreciated, though.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews