The Move to Medium Format

By now, most of you know that I recently stepped up from 35mm to medium format photography. It’s been a breath of fresh air, to say the least, after many years of frustration of not getting the quality of images I’ve seen in galleries and exhibitions. Count me ignorant or count me afraid. I was never sure why it took me so long to figure out that maybe the size of my film was a change I needed to explore. It certainly was a case of being intimidated by something new. Medium format is an entirely foreign realm of photography for me and frankly, I thought, where do I even start?

But two weeks have passed and I am enjoying how shooting medium format has changed my entire photographic process, mainly slowing it down to a snail’s pace. I took 15 minutes to take my first exposure and with only 20 exposures per roll of film, I’m not so much in a hurry anymore, for anything. And it’s been liberating, to sit and think about how I want to make a photograph.

In recent days, I’ve read a lot about formats in photography and the reasons behind why many great photographers choose to shoot bigger. Indeed, I think there’s a place for 35mm, medium and large format photography. Each is suited for particular types of photography and different personalities of photographers. It really is the tool and photographer coming together that lends to a particular photographic process, and consequently, a particular set of images.

A post by Darius Himes really captured this concept beautifully. As a response to comments made in his interview with photographer Stephen Shore, he wrote:

There are several ways that any tool—here, a large format camera—affects the way one works and, by association, affects the way one envisions and thinks about one’s surroundings. The first, and perhaps easiest to grasp, is the physical interface required by the tool … all of the physical activity required to make an image becomes part of the process in an intimate way and creates parameters that your body must accommodate and work within.

Photographer Liz Kuball also wrote a post a few days ago on format that is a worthwhile read.

I leave for Europe next week for a ten day tour by boat, train, and plane through France, Spain, and Morocco. If you don’t see a blog post for the next two weeks, please don’t take offense. I’ll have many stories and photos when I come back. Ciao folks.

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