Old Cameras Getting A New Life

Agfa ePhoto 1280 and Nikon Coolpix 4500

Larry Wolf, Two Old Friends (2020)

Back in February of 1998, I purchased an Agfa ePhoto 1280. I had taken a Photoshop course at Santa Fe Photographic Workshop with John Paul Caponigro in 1997. I was scanning film and prints for a while and I was excited to have an actual digital camera. A new era was dawning. 

I particularly liked the design concept of the Agfa; it was reinventing the camera around its components: the lens and flash in one module, the LCD display, batteries and memory card in the other, connected with a swivel. This was not the eyeball-to-viewfinder of all the 35mm film cameras I had used, but a new design for the new technology. It was an "arms length" camera, with an experience much like our current phones, although the swivel allowed for having the lens pointed one way with the display screen another - good for overhead, low angle and self portraits. The camera fit well in my hands, the controls were easy to use. Here's an enthusiastic review from Steve's Digicam from 1997.

The Agfa took remarkably good photos (1024x768 with a 3x optical zoom) but it ate up batteries. Even with double sets of batteries (it uses AAs), it was painful to use. Sadly, I went back to film and scanning for a while. 

In 2002, I gave the design another go, this time with the Nikon Coolpix 4500. It's a bigger image (2272x1704 with a 4x optical zoom). This was a workable camera where I wasn't fighting with the technology (specifically the batteries). Here's the Digital Photography Review from 2002.

The Nikon completely shifted my photography away from film. I was a very happy user of this camera for several years. 

New Life Coming

I've ordered a card reader for the SmartMedia cards that the Agfa uses and the CompactFlash cards that the Nikon uses. There is a fresh set of AA rechargeable batteries coming for the Agfa. The batteries for the Nikon are charging as I write this. I'm looking forward to using both cameras in the near future.

Some Images From The Agfa 1280 From 1998

Larry Wolf, Agfa Unboxed (1998)

Larry Wolf, Self Portrait (1998)

Larry Wolf, Self Portrait (1998)

Larry Wolf, Blossoms (1998)

Larry Wolf, Red Hawk Zendo (1998)

Larry Wolf, View from Sean's Car (1998)

Larry Wolf, Floral Arrangement (1998) 

Larry Wolf, At Home (1998)

Larry Wolf, At Home (1998)

There is a playfulness in these images, an exploration of what's possible with this camera, embracing its capabilities and limitations.

Some Images From The Nikon 4500 From 2002

Larry Wolf, Self Portrait (2002)

Larry Wolf, Eric (2002)

Larry Wolf, Eric (2002)

Larry Wolf, Eric (2002)

Larry Wolf, Airport (2002)

Larry Wolf, Tea House Pond (2002

Larry Wolf, Man and Dog (2002)

Larry Wolf, Flat Iron and Obelisk (2002)

[updated April 12, 2020 with images from the Nikon 4500]

Looking Back at Twenty Years Together

Private Ceremony (2000)

Larry Wolf, Two Hands (2000)

On April 8, 2000, Eric and Larry exchanged vows. It was done as a private ceremony with just the three friends who officiated. It was not legally binding. There were no other witnesses. It was important that it was just between us. The only public announcement was the posting to my old website later that day (reproduced in this blog).

Back in 2000, we had no idea what we were getting into, the journeys we would take and the lives we'd be living today. It's been, and continues to be, a wonderful life together.

Larry Wolf, Two Hands (2020)

Our Hands Today (2020)

Here are our hands today. We have two wedding bands. We added the second band in 2014, when we had a very public wedding celebration and a legal marriage (below).

 
 
 

Legal Wedding (2014)

Tak-Seng Lodro, Eric and Larry Wedding (2014)

Our second wedding, July 26, 2014, shortly after the US Supreme Court legalized same-sex weddings across the US. With Federal and state recognition, we had a large ceremony at the Chicago Shambhala Center, surrounded by friends and family. The large crowd cheering us on was quite a contrast to the private event fourteen years earlier.

From the Archive (1999)

Looking back through my archive, here are a few of the photos which are not in the 1999 repostings. These are from the year of courtship leading up to the 2000 commitment ceremony.

A Day on the Great Lawn in Louisville Kentucky (1999)

Larry Wolf, Eric on the Great Lawn (1999)

Larry Wolf, Eric Flying a Kite (1999)

Larry Wolf, Kite (1999)

The View from the Bistro Table in Eric's Apartment (1999)

Larry Wolf, View from the Bistro Table in Eric's Apartment (1999)

Rebecca Solnit - Postmodernist Body

The Missing Subject

Larry Wolf, Bed (2020)

The body described again and again in postmodern theory does not suffer under the elements, encounter other species, experience primal fear or much in the way of exhilaration, or strain its muscles to the utmost. In sum, it doesn't engage in physical endeavor or spend time out of doors. The very term "the body" so often used by postmodernists seems to speak of a passive object, and that body appears most often laid out upon the examining table or in bed. A medical and sexual phenomenon, it is a site of sensations, processes, and desires rather than a source of action and production. Having been liberated from manual labor and located in the sensory deprivation chambers of apartments and offices, this body has nothing left but the erotic as a residue of what it means to be embodied.

Which is not to disparage sex and the erotic as fascinating and profound (and relevant to walking's history, as we shall see), only to propose that they are so emphasized because other aspects of being embodied have atrophied for many people. The body presented to us in these hundreds of volumes and essays, this passive body for which sexuality and biological function are the only signs of life, is in fact not the universal human body but the white collar urban body, or rather a theoretical body that can't even be theirs, since even minor physical exertions never appear: this body described in theory never even aches from hauling the complete works of Kierkegaard across campus, "If the body is a metaphor for our locatedness in space and time and thus for the finitude of human perception and knowledge, then the postmodern body is no body at all," writes Susan Bordo, one feminist theorist at odds with this version of embodiment.

Rebecca Solnit - wanderlust, A History of Walking (2000) 

Section I. The Pace of Thoughts 

Chapter 2. The Mind at Three Miles an Hour 

Part iv. The Missing Subject 

A Walk on Glenwood Avenue

A Sunny Day in April, Soaking in the Moment

Larry Wolf, April Walk (2020) 

Larry Wolf, April Walk (2020)

Larry Wolf, April Walk (2020)

Larry Wolf, April Walk (2020)

Larry Wolf, April Walk (2020)

Larry Wolf, April Walk (2020)

Larry Wolf, April Walk (2020) 

Larry Wolf, April Walk (2020)

Larry Wolf, April Walk (2020)

March on Washington 1979

LGBTQ National History Archive

National March for Lesbian and Gay Rights - October 1979

From My Archive - A Few Slides

I've taken on making order out of the mountain of boxes filled with photos from my past, boxes that I've hauled around for decades, from one home to another, only now getting them organized.

One of the finds were some slides from 1979. Given the gaps in the slide numbers, there might be more somewhere. Regardless, I thought it would be fun to get these posted.

The drive to DC from Vermont (by way of family in New York) was invigorating. There were buses and other cars on the highway with signs in their windows. A growing wave of vehicles on a beautiful sunny day, free of the weekday congestion on the roads. In an era before cell phones, GPS or social media, traveling alone, I could still find my way, find my people, make my presence felt.

DC felt empty. President Jimmy Carter was at Camp David for the weekend. There were no crowds of tourists. We had the city to ourselves.

Larry Wolf, March on Washington 1979

 People were gathering near the Capital. Buses coming from across the country.

Larry Wolf, March on Washington 1979

I found the folks from UMass. When I was a grad student there (1972-1974), and was a public speaker for the gay student group, we were known as the Student Homophile League, an artifact of the pre-liberation days. By 1979, they had a much more assertive name: People's Gay Alliance.

Larry Wolf, March on Washington 1979

I found my Vermont friends (of course, this is the one picture which is out of focus).

Larry Wolf, March on Washington 1979

The DC Police were present but generally unobtrusive.

Larry Wolf, March on Washington 1979 Police Motorcycles

It was a great day for a rally. The weather was good. The sound system worked. The crowd was enthusiastic.

Larry Wolf, March on Washington 1979

There were also quiet moments for hanging with friends and getting an artful selfie in the reflective glass of the National Gallery of Art.

Larry Wolf, March on Washington 1979

Larry Wolf, March on Washington 1979

 A perfect day includes a kite, flying above the crowd.

Larry Wolf, March on Washington 1979

That Explains The Traffic

Driving home to Vermont with a couple of friends after the March, we had a delightful moment at the toll booth for the New Jersey Turnpike. The fare collector noticed the placard we had from the march. He said "That explains all the traffic tonight." His was a simple acknowledgement of who we were. It was a great measure of the crowd size. His direct statement was also a take on the pulse of the country: we were noticed. Another event in DC jamming up the roads. Another group asserting its presence and its right to peacefully assemble. A celebration and a set of demands for change.

Artifacts of an Epidemic

Chicago, Illinois - March 2020

Larry Wolf, Artifact of an Epidemic #5 (2020)

Larry Wolf, Artifact of an Epidemic #4 (2020)

Larry Wolf, Artifact of an Epidemic #3 (2020)

Larry Wolf, Artifact of an Epidemic #2 (2020)

Larry Wolf, Artifact of an Epidemic #1 (2020)

Hotel Evening 1994

From the archive

Larry Wolf, Hotel Evening 1994 #1 (2020)

Larry Wolf, Hotel Evening 1994 #2 (2020)

Larry Wolf, Hotel Evening 1994 #3 (2020)

Larry Wolf, Hotel Evening 1994 #4 (2020) 

Larry Wolf, Hotel Evening 1994 #5 (2020)

Larry Wolf, Hotel Evening 1994 #6 (2020)

Larry Wolf, Hotel Evening 1994 #7 (2020)

Larry Wolf, Hotel Evening 1994 #8 (2020) 

Larry Wolf, Hotel Evening 1994 #9 (2020)