#64 The Hell of the North
 
Our second catch up show of the year once again saw the return of Simon to the fold who, it turns out, has had sufficient time off to be reinvigorated and enthused for all things LFPP. What does that mean? Well, more shows we hope, at least three a year……
 
Things we chatted about on the show:
As we didn’t have a guest on show 63 Simon kicked things off by thanking those who had so very kindly sent in Ko-Fi donations (see link to the LFPP Ko-Fi site somewhere at the end of these notes) with nice words as well. So very appreciated and well, considering we haven’t had a show out since, a tad humbling.
 
One of the donors to the show mentioned Conflict Cameras who are making superb progress with an auto focus large format camera, I know, right! The mind boggles. Anyway follow along here whilst we see if they can be a guest on the show. https://www.instagram.com/conflict.cameras/
 
Simon had just come back from another “#MerseyMeetup” organised by the nicest Liverpudlian we know Steve Starr https://twitter.com/Stig_Ofthedump
 
George Walsh was there, we spoke about George and his repairs to Graflex cameras back on show 63 and George is another guest we have lined up.  George’s Facebook details are here:  (18) George Walsh | Facebook should you have a similar request.
 
Erik brought us up to date with his large format photo journalist escapades on the Paris to Roubaix cycle race in Northern France, this race was named “The Hell of the North” by those who took part in its inaugural 1919 outing, just one year after the WW1 Armistice when the land was, well, like hell on earth. Erik is getting his work published which is fantastic, here is the latest piece in the Radavist Cycling journal.
 
https://theradavist.com/paris-roubaix-femmes-2023-ef-education-tibco-svb-team-interviews/?fbclid=IwAR1_uJip13ID1Bor5Jj1wx0G7t805daYUgHtDFmsa9t4uSg8A5eWJoPAFp4
 
Erik explains how he loves to use orthochromatic film and how it fitted in well with this project as its close to the emulsion that would have been available at the time plus he was using his modified Kodak 3A till it broke, a camera that would also have been around back then over 100 years ago.
 
Erik also took with him a modified Polaroid roll film camera he 800 which can be modified to take 4x5 film here is a link but there are others out there if you are interested in doing the same thing. https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?121626-Mahogany-Polaroid-800-conversion-to-4x5
 
Foma Film are or have introduced a 400 speed Ortho film which is a welcome addition to those who love that unique look where reds turn very dark and skies are very light (as are blue eyes) read more here… https://www.foma.cz/ew/9e5c83a3-3971-4ee3-ac98-dbb6878ff953-en
 
Whilst in France Erik visited the grave or memorial to John Kipling (Rudyard Kipling’s Son) – and interesting story about him on the BBC History site. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35321716

Andrew brought us up to date on his “What lies beneath” project looking at the modern day landscape around the numerous WW1 grave sites around the Ypres Salient.  Andrew started this project back in 2017 and shared some images and thoughts on his blog.
https://andrewbartram.wordpress.com/2017/11/06/what-lies-beneath-the-beginning-of-a-journey-with-a-large-format-camera/
 
This time, with more negatives to add to the collection he intends to make 5x7 Warmtone prints for scanning then fibre prints with typed notes for a “box set”.
 
Anyway its good to have a project.

Finally, Andrew spoke about our previous guest, Jeff Perry https://www.instagram.com/20thcenturycamera/?hl=en and the astonishingly bad times he is currently going through. Jeff can be supported here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CqRaMP7vnte/?hl=en
 
 
LFPP links -
https://largeformatphotographypodcast.podbean.com/
ko-fi.com/largeformatphotographypodcast
 
You can join in the fun at our Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/22965992905648