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PORTFOLI O | HANS BOL
In America and Japan, there are people who engage in the so-called "Ultra-Large Format Photography"; my 8x20 inch system is part of that approach, but there are also photographers who build (or commission) cameras that can make 50x60cm images. Of course it is not easy to get black and white film material, but it is still made, particularly by Ilford in England and Foma in the Czech Republic.
clearly, because I am quite busy digitizing my archive.
It goes without saying that nowadays shooting on 8x10 inch black and white is rather unusual in the Netherlands. There are however still a lot of people shooting at 4x5 inch. The image quality of this type of format is fantastic. Koos Breukel for example, is an excellent Dutch portrait photographer who took many of his portraits in 4x5 and 8x10 inch. The quality of his prints - I made several of them - is simply amazing.
Things went much better because of my first experiences and a good preparation. From that moment on the proportions were clear to me. Since then I have travelled extensively in America; more than ten times by now and the end is not in sight.
Early years In 1978 I flew to Singapore to buy my first cameras - a Canon AE-1, a Canon A-1 and three lenses: 35mm, 50mm and 135mm. I calculated that if I made that trip, the costs of the camera (including travel) would be as high as when I'd just bought the camera in the Netherlands. In addition, I wanted to see something of the world and free myself from the fixed patterns that the Netherlands offered me during those years. I was on my own since my 18th and I felt I had to leave. Being a student in those days, I flew with a big discount, because my father was a former KLM employee. That made some choices simple. In 1980 I flew to Houston. I had the idea that I could do some good photography over there. This journey was a remarkable experience. I was completely overwhelmed by the proportions of the city. When I arrived in Houston late in the evening, I slept in the church at the airport; I had no idea what to do. I felt so lost. I was confused and scared, everything was so different. I wondered where everybody was, where I could buy a sandwich, I saw no bikes and so on. I walked and didn't realize that everything was done by car. After a week I left. Homesick, I guess. And yet, I made my first black and white photographs in the US. I remember it all
My second stay in the US occurred in 1981. I had acquired a taste for it and had to rectify some things in connection with my first introduction to America. I travelled to New York and took drama courses at the Summer University in Albany.