35mm Artifacts – Construct, at Last

 

Human construct fails.

 

All human construct fails, with time.

 

 

I’ve mentioned how a coworker at a photo lab, knowing I intended to do fieldwork, advised me against cherrywood view cameras, despite those being the most romantically elegant version of the tool I most needed.

“Wood warps,” he said. “All wood warps, in time.

 

Construct fails. All construct fails, with time. Even verities once deemed everlasting.

 

But 'built to last' is undeniably better, for so long as that lasts.

So when push came to shove, I went with Linhoff’s durability. That tool now rests in its handy travel bag. In theory, it’ll outlast me.

 

Can't tell how many times I've tried to duplicate the image below, using better film and/or digital capture. In all the years of looking and waiting and shooting never quite this, I've not glimpsed such a telling composition again…

 

Sometimes, happy happenstance really is everything.

 

By spending so much quality time in Superior places working the Nikon, my vision through the proscenium lens continued to improve.

 

They say history repeats itself.

 

I soon enough wearied of repeating mine.

 

Decided that being an opportunistic, snapshot taking dilettante into old age just wasn’t gonna cut it. What I was seeing demanded so much more.

 

Upon buying it, I only sorta kinda knew a Linhoff nearly as old as I was might also be a magic window on the world.

During my first trip into the wilderness with it, I came home with this, because it’s what I saw.

 

And that winter, I reconsidered botanicals.

Except the next season, I came home the likes of this:

 

And a decade’s long pursuit was met.

Magic window indeed.