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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 writing the pro side was smart, arti...

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Mike Johnston
Mike Johnston
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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.
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