by Dennis A. Livesey/photos by the author
Victor Hand, an extraordinary 4×5 photographer since the 1950s, was asked if he would ever go digital. “No,” Hand replied. “That would mean I would have to start all over again, and I would not be a professional. And one thing I will always be is a professional.” These words have often echoed in my mind.
I am at Reading & Northern’s Tamaqua Tunnel, and 2102 is coming. I have been planning this shot for months. I have my like-new 1955 Graflex Speed Graphic in hand. In the film holder is a 4×5” sheet of Ilford HPS5+ black & white film. The camera’s 127mm lens will render a FOV (field of view) equivalent to a 34mm full-frame camera lens.
More so than any still camera I have ever used, there is a strict checklist to follow. I have reduced it to this mnemonic — “F.A.S.D.” or “Focus-Aperture-Shutter-Dark Slide:
(1) “Focus: 80’, check.”
(2) “Aperture: ƒ/5.6, check.”
(3) “Shutter: 500th, check.”
(4) “…Holy smokes! It’s out of the tunnel! Frame up! Frame up! Wait…wait…until it fills the Action Finder, hold steady (no Image Stabilization with this baby)! Sqqquuueeze the big shutter button. “Whirr-clunk!” goes the camera’s rear curtain shutter. Wow! That was great! Visions of Victor Hand-like photos fill my mind. Now, put the Dark Slide back in… Oh, Nooo!… I didn’t pull the Dark Slide! Augh! No photo at all!”
I started down this particular road a long time ago. As I became more aware of photography in the 1960s, I remember seeing these large black and silver cameras that had big lenses with black accordion bellows. I remember portrait, wedding, and school photographers using these big cameras. They made a loud clacking noise as the film holders were put in, but they made an imperceptible click when the lens shutter was released. Since no one I knew had one, I wrote it off as “too expensive” and something I would probably never have.
However, as I started to learn about railroad photography, the name “Speed Graphic” would pop up in connection with photographers such as Victor Hand and Jim Shaughnessy. At the time, I had to consider these big, expensive cameras out of reach because I was trying to come up with the $248.58 for my first good 35mm SLR. But the results from those Speed Graphics were impressive. The images those men made were fantastic. They were big and sharp, all the way from here to infinity.
ABOVE: Robert Hale, a prolific rail photographer of the 1940s and 1950s was the Babe Ruth of pan and pacing shots. What’s more, he did it all using a Speed Graphic. While chasing Reading & Northern 2102 out of Nesquehoning, Pa., with friends, I had opportunity for two attempts at a pacing shot. One worked. Oren Helbok was at the wheel to make this possible.
What Is a Speed Graphic?
The Speed Graphic was made by Graflex Inc. of Rochester, N.Y., from 1912 to 1972. The year it was introduced, the sharpest photographs were made by view cameras with large-format film sizes of 4×5, 5×7, 8×10, and up. While view cameras excel at flexibility and image quality, they are entirely unsuited for action because they are large, cumbersome, slow, and require a tripod. On the other hand, the Speed Graphic with its 4×5-sized film was designed to have the image quality of a view camera, but in a configuration that could be used in the hand by press photographers. The kicker, however, was this — at the time, the fastest shutter speed of lenses with leaf shutters was 1/400th of a second, clearly inadequate for subjects like sports, automobiles, or trains. The solution was to place a curtain shutter in the rear of the camera.
A curtain shutter is made of two rollers, one on top of the body and one on the bottom, rolling and unrolling a rubberized cloth curtain between them. In the curtain, there are five slits of ever smaller openings. While the spring unwinds the curtain at the same speed, it is the curtain opening that you select that governs the amount of time the film will be exposed. This spring-driven shutter was not only able to do 1/500th of a second but an amazing 1/1000th of a second, enough to stop the fastest Pennsy K-4.
The most popular rail photographer model was the Pacemaker Speed Graphic. Practical advantages for the rail photographer over the previous model included simpler shutter controls, a coated lens, and a body shutter release. An elemental camera, to be sure, it features a lens with a leaf shutter in the front; a curtain shutter, ground glass, and film holder in the rear; a bellows between them; a side or top-mounted rangefinder (for focus); two viewfinders (for composing); and a body with a folding railbed holding everything together. The front “lens standard” (the metal frame that holds the lens in place) is mounted on rails. Two focus knobs on the side of the rail bed allow you to move the lens standard back and forth (the bellows providing the flexibility needed for this) to focus the lens. The folded box (61/2×71/2×41/2 inches) is covered in pebble leather and stainless steel, with Mahogany wood. Weighing with a film holder, it tips the scale at seven pounds. In comparison, a Canon R6 with a 24–70mm ƒ/2.8 lens weighs three pounds 12 ounces. Holding one, you’ll notice it’s a sturdy, well-made camera.
This camera isn’t the most ergonomic in the world. While there’s a hand strap on the left that works fine, your right thumb, middle, ring, and pinky fingers need to support the right side so your right index finger can press the shutter. In other words, you have to adapt to the camera…
