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Larry Racioppo talks size - from bulk film loaders to large format cameras.
Inside Street Photography |
The official newsletter of Street Photography Magazine |
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| Friday, 25 Oct 2024 | Reading time: 6 mins | Read online
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Like most of the photographers I knew in the 1970’s, I photographed with a 35mm camera. Most of us used Kodak’s Black and White Tri-X film because we could save money by processing the film ourselves. To save even more money, we often “bulk loaded” the film instead of buying individual rolls of film.
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After the initial one-time expense of purchasing a plastic bulk loader and reusable film cassettes, we bought 100-foot rolls of film as needed. The process was easy to learn, and a real money saver.
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Film rolls and the items, new and used, needed to bulk load are still being sold in stores and on the internet.
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And instructional videos abound on YouTube and photography blogs.
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Eventually I realized that I had to start shooting with a larger format camera if I wanted to make 16 x 20 inch or larger prints. My brother Robert gave me a Yashica-Mat 124 120mm camera. I used that camera regularly and was very happy with the results – sharper images, with less grain. In 1975 I submitted a series of my 16 x 20 inch prints to the Bus Show. Because my darkroom trays were shallow, I had to wash these prints in my bathtub. When I was notified that my photographs were accepted, I was excited – I was in my first exhibition! For the month of November, 1975, this public exhibit would display over 500 photographs by over 200 photographers on New York City buses.
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| 15th Street, South Brooklyn, 1975 |
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Around this time, I occasionally worked as a photo assistant in Manhattan commercial studios which created large color transparencies for print ads. I learned how to set up 4 x 5 and 8 x 10 inch large format cameras, but never photographed with them. This changed in 1976 when my mother visited me with a surprise – a classic 4 x 5 Speed Graphic camera, which I knew as the logo for NYC’s popular newspaper, The Daily News.
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She explained that after World War II, one of her cousins had enrolled in a photography program on the GI Bill. He did not complete the program, but kept the camera provided. When he heard that I was a serious photographer, he gave it to my mother for me. It took me a while to learn how to use the Speed Graphic, and work with 4x5 inch sheet film.
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| Portrait of my mother with the Speed Graphic, 1976 |
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Dawoud Bey, one of my favorite photographers, switched from 35mm to 4x5 while shooting on the street. He made his classic large format street portraits using Polaroid’s Type 55 Positive/Negative film. Many of these images are collected in his 2021 book Street Portraits.
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Judith Joy Ross has gone even farther. She uses an 8x10 view camera for her beautiful and powerful location portraits.
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| You can read about her 2023 retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum here. |
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I never became as adept with the Speed Graphic as I would have liked. I eventually switched to easier-to-use view cameras like the simple Calumet monorail below.
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| Outside of my Aunt Angelina’s house on Halloween, South Brooklyn, 1996 |
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I knew that my late aunt’s house would be a destination for trick-or-treaters because of her generosity. I attached a painter’s drop cloth from her second story porch, ran a line for my strobe to an outlet in her living room and set up my camera for portraits. I photographed with both color and Type 55 Polaroid film. I kept the Polaroid negatives for printing later, and gave each trick-or-treater a 4 x 5 inch black and white print. It was quite a day.
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| Trick-or-treaters, South Brooklyn, 1996 |
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Best of all, it reminded me of a Halloween afternoon in the 1950’s when my cousin Joe and I were out trick-or-treating in the same neighborhood. In addition to candy, someone took Polaroid photos of us in their apartment – and gave us the prints!
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| Larry, South Brooklyn, circa1955 |
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See more of Larry's Halloween work in the article Halloween at St. John's.
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| Larry’s portrait by Anna Delaney |
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When I returned to South Brooklyn in 1970 after two years in California as a VISTA Volunteer, I was 22 years old with no plans and a $30 camera I barely knew how to use. I took a course at the School of Visual Arts, a job with the telephone company and began to photograph my family and friends. Things worked out better than I could have expected. I’ve been making photographs for over 50 years, and have some things I’d like to share.
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Readers can respond directly to me – larryracioppo@gmail.com.
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