Don’t sell yourself short @Ryan . You are your own worst critic. I would think Andy Southard was as down on his photos as you are about yours. Your photos are all eye appealing to everybody except you. Quit beating yourself up !!!
Andy Southard’s was the first byline I remember from my early days of reading the little pages, then the bigger ones. Maybe because of his unusual last name? But now I know it was because of his photography and writing skills. He was top of the heap on both fronts. And his green 56 Ford Victoria has always been one of my favorites. The man had an eye, no doubt.
I started noticing Andy’s photos in the late 1950’s or early sixties, in the little books I talked my folks into buying for me. I finally met Andy at the fiftieth GNRS in San Francisco’ Cow Palace. I bought most of his books then and there, and he autographed them for me. It is truly impressive all he has done, and a nice guy as well.
Check out Speed and Kulture on Youtube. Trent Sherrill has been putting videos together with Andy Southard's collection.
Just an FYI that @SpeedandKultureTRENT Sherrill (with donations from several Hot Rod & Custom Car enthusiasts) has been preserving The @AndySS Southard Jr. Archive . . . and making it available to the public via: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . andysouthardjrarchives . . . Speed and Kulture . . . Speed And Kulture
I believe Speed & Kulture have permission from Mr Southard's estate to access his complete archives. This is really great stuff and highly recommended viewing.
Correct . . . @SpeedandKultureTRENT Sherrill has been working with Andy's widow, his son, & his daughters to preserve the archive.
Did Andy do his own darkroom work? If not it must have cost him a fortune for photo processing...that's one big difference in the modern digital era, you can take as many photos as you want.
I asked Andy about that during my interview. This is from my notes: Question: Do you do your own development? Make your own prints? Andy: Off and on, yes. In the very early days, I used a lab. That got expensive and I quickly learned to develop my own film and make contact sheets, prints. Through much of the later 50's and all through the 60's and 70's, I mostly did my own dark work. Of course, most of the published works were printed from my negatives.
Hello, When getting started in the dark room setting up, one has to see where all of the items will go. I had unlimited space in my apartment garage on one side of the wall space. With one red El Camino in place, there was room galore on the other side of the floor space. Yes, someone will say the garage is not air tight and darken enough to have a darkroom. That is not true. Yes, if one had a 4 wall room with one door and a concrete floor with running water and a drain, that would be great. But, in most houses and apartments, that description is the bathroom or kitchen. Which are used constantly… so, one has to get creative. Once the developing table is made and there is room to place the three trays, now the rest is easy. The cost for the sturdy table can be had from the local big box store or 2x4 + 4x4 + some 1 inch finished plywood. The smooth surface can be sanded and coated or sealed with some surface coverings. I opted to use a nice coating of resin and color swirls to get a nice smooth surface like a surfboard that was impervious to spilled drops of solution of sorts. Then once the table workplace was set, the garage now needed to be sealed up. No garage is going to be air tight. It needs breathing screens and such to meet codes. But, one can make small sealed wooden plates to fit into the screened areas to make them light tight. You won’t be in there for long hours so no damage to the air circulation will harm the garage parameters. The door is the biggest light giving source, so the edges have to have a rubber flexible seal all around the inside edge. When closing the door, the rubber edge will seal the light producing opening all around the edges. Creating a “dark room.” As far as running water, sure, if you have a source in the garage, use it as well as the drain. A table to run one last wash tray is necessary, but not always handy. So, make provisions for using the spare bathroom facilities once you are finished with the first two developing trays. It is not necessary to have a three tray area with access to running water. I developed my black and white prints, then once I was ready for the washing, I took over a small apartment bathroom and had a flat wooden surface to allow the developing tray get water and drain into the sink drain opening. As that was going on, I could take a break for a snack or talk with my wife. Ha! The neat thing was the initial cost of developing cans, reels, trays, fluids, enlarger and lenses and the table were all a part of the program. Within weeks of selling several orders for photo prints, the cost was absorbed within the whole process. Now, for future projects, everything was virtually free. The color processing was done by Kodak labs. They are the best and fastest. Once the color slides are chosen, out they go and within several days, a nice color print is on our door step or pick up at the camera store. Labs are/were good for this difficult process and set up. So, there was no need to set up a second section for chemicals and processing stuff. Jnaki As far as reels for the black and white film developing, there is a HAMB post to show what was used. Practice, practice using a long 35mm film strip inside of a light tight bag will allow you feel how it is done and that you can do this anywhere in the house or garage. Even in the back of a 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery, if needed. But, on location, I used the back of the sedan delivery with a bag and changed my new roll of film in any of the cameras that needed it. light tight and access to all camera’s rear opening film reels. If you progress to larger film format, then of course, a second set of reels would be necessary. Same cans, but larger open reels for the larger film format. And a larger film slide in for focusing the enlarger through the film negatives. Note: The developing table for the enlarger and trays are one in the same. Move the enlarger over to accommodate the three developing trays. When we moved to a small house from our apartment, one small laundry room with a water source and drain was all that was needed. Once side was the modified bench to fit the small room and the other was the new small sink and washing station. The window and door got the “sealing” treatment and there were even shelves to store the trays and developing products. All in a dinky laundry room that was wide enough for a washer and dryer later on in our journey. My philosophy is the larger the room, the more space for dust gathering. And we know that minute particles of dust are the “blems” of photos and yes, digitally can be taken out, but why? Why not prevent them from the negative to print stage in the first place? YRMV
I took a black & white photo developing class in college. It was a lot of fun and I think I had a certain amount of talent for it, but it is an involved process - the school had a nice lab with all the equipment and chemicals (and we got to do as much film as we wanted as part of the tuition) but going on and setting up my own darkroom was more than I was willing to do. I remember taking pics of a vintage Minneapolis-Moline tractor and some motorcycles, but sadly no hot rods or customs.
The Jalopy Journal
