The Long View
There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept. - Ansel Adams
This technical perfection is the fault of many photographers. They take the perfect pictures with no content. - Walker Evans
The process of finding photographs for my website led to the exploration of my archives and brought an awareness that I had only picked a select few images to display. But on review there are many additional strong images that assembled created a more complete view of a subject.
As an extension of “Looking Back” this portfolio offers a longer look at images that extend beyond a single image. I will continue to post strong individual photos in the “Looking Back” portfolio but this format allows a more in-depth view. The photographs may be of a single event or a subject explored over time to create a visual essay.
Frederick Steel / The start of my website and Facebook Photo page prompted me to review years of images. In this case I happened on a group of transparencies and black and white negatives from an excursion to Frederick Steel Company in 1976. An adventure setup under circumstances long forgotten, so with my 35mm Nikkormat and a borrowed 6x6cm Mamiya C330 we ventured into an extraordinary environment. The basis for production at Frederick Steel was two workers outside with acetylene torches cutting steel ingots in half in order to feed a blast furnace. The molten ingots were then fed through a series of machines that reduced them to steel rods and bar stock. Conditions were dark, dirty, and hot! Photographing was a challenge; basically guessing at exposure with focusing incredibly difficult. I managed to shoot one roll of 35mm black and white negative film and several rolls of 35mm and 2-1/4” transparencies. Assembled is selection of images from that morning’s adventure.
Withamsville Volunteer Fire Department / In November of 1980 I had the opportunity to photograph this volunteer fire department at a training event. The property owner wished the structure to be razed and donated it for the training exercise as new volunteers were guided by established veterans of the department. I shot seven rolls of black and white film that day, these select images are from those seven rolls.
ALL images © David W. Smith. Not for use or reproduction without express permission.