James Cockroft

Kodachrome in 126: failure(s) near the end of 2020

I woke up one morning back in October with an idea to get a 126 camera and shoot some square 35mm images. I bought the Agfamatic 200 Sensor and a Fakmatic adapter, and then bought some long expired 126 film in hopes of getting better results from reclaimed cartridges.

The first to arrive was a 20 shot roll of Kodachrome X, expired in 1975. I reclaimed the film and spooled it into some 120 backing paper, shot it at EI 8 in the Yashica-Mat 124, and developed it in Ilfotec HC, 1:31 for 9.5 minutes, as I had with my earlier attempt with Kodachrome, and hoped for the best…

(photo)book(s) of the year, 2020

I looked at and read more books in 2020 than I did in the entire decade 2010-2019. I didn’t keep count, but I averaged 1 book a day for the first half of the year, and then 2-3 a week since. I’m not proud. Most of it was virtually indistinguishable from broadcast television and the time spent reading was time I didn’t spend with my darling wife and therefore caused some tension in my marriage. Still, though, I did it.

David Campany – ‘The Open Road’

The Open Road: Photography & The American Road Trip is a large, heavy, coffee table-type survey of major photographic projects that dealt with the United States as seen by car, from car or hotel windows, while on road trips across, back and forth, up and down, or all around the country, and it’s maybe the worst book to try to review when you’re in photobook-buying-budgeting mode…

Chasing Pigeons with two “panoramic” cameras

I planned, or at least thought about, doing a (Photo)Book(s) of the Year post for today, but am feeling lazy and uninspired, so please enjoy this preview of some camera reviews, coming sometime in 2021, maybe…

Enter the Agfamatic 200

I don’t quite remember what exactly got into me. Something about wanting some square sprocket images or something, if I recall. Or maybe I got tempted by one of the 1-2-6 days (December 6, January 26, 12 June) somehow. Who knows. But there I was, one day in October, watching some of the FPP videos on 126 film and cameras, particularly the one about the Fakmatic 35 to 126 converter thing, in which they listed a few cameras that worked well with it. Most of the recommended cameras, like most 126 Cameras in general, were very simple, boxy Kodak Instamatic models, with a single aperture and shutter speed, but one piqued my interest due to its somewhat smaller, curvier lines and big red shutter release: the Agfamatic 200 Sensor.

Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans – Expanded Edition

I knew The Americans was one of the major photobooks, nay, major photographic achievements of the 20th Century, and said nearly as much in my short comments around the unboxing I shared several years ago. I’m not quite sure who on Twitter turned me on to Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans – Expanded Edition, but when I heard it had many of Frank’s contact sheets from the Guggenheim-funded project, well, I hunted down a beat-up used copy,* which then sat in my “to review” pile, or on the new “to review” shelves, for way too long.

Claes & Coosje & Mom & Me in KC

It was sometime in the summer, 2018, Mom and I took a road trip, from her house in NW Arkansas, up through Springfield, MO, to Kansas City, MO and KS, mostly stopping at used bookstores and whatnot. I don’t recall the impetus for it. We stayed the night in Springfield, I think, and so there must have been something she or I or we wanted to do, but I don’t really recall what…