The Craft Approach: Is Large Format Really Best?

October 13, 2013 ·

Mike Johnston

By Mike Johnston

Illustrated with photographs by Carl Weese

(Originally published in Camera & Darkroommagazine)

Introduction — 2001

This is surely one of the strangest articles I ever wrote during my six-year stint as a Contributing Editor of the oldCamera & Darkroom magazine. First of all, unlike most of my articles, I didn’t come up with the idea for this one myself. The Editor had planned a double-article presentation on large format, one article taking the pro side, and the other taking the con argument. A seasoned author whose name is closely connected with view cameras and the large-format scene had agreed to write the pro article, and the Editor needed somebody to write its counterpart. Would I be willing to write the “con” article?

I got talked into it. In the spirit of the concept, I took the argument I’d been assigned and made the best case I could. Maybe I covered my butt too hard, I don’t know—but the guy who was supposed to be wri...

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Mike Johnston

See all articles by Mike Johnston

Mike Johnston graduated in 1985 from the Photography Department of the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., where his photographic mentor was the late Steven Lee Szabo. Initially a photo teacher who taught at all levels from, children to the elderly, he worked as a professional photographer for 7 years in Washington as a member of the Paul Kennedy Studio. In photo magazines he was East Coast Editor of Camera & Darkroom magazine and later Editor-in-Chief of Photo Techniques magazine. He wrote more than 250 regular columns (in five different languages) for a number of publications and websites including the British Black & White Photography magazine and the late Michael Reichmann’s The Luminous-Landscape website. He now writes, edits, and maintains The Online Photographer website full time.