Book Review: Strange Days, Dangerous Nights, et al, Millett, Sandford

Strange Days, Dangerous Nights: Photos from the Speed Graphics Era
(full title)


Interesting photos from non-media town , poor camera detail

This is a collection of photos from a newspaper not in New York or Los
Angeles, and so provide an interesting change of pace from books by
Sante and Jack Huddleston which cover the sordid side of this era in
those over-covered towns.

The title did, however, lead me to expect more on the cameras
themselves. In this regard it's a disappointment. I had hoped for
reasonable coverage of the cameras themselves and perhaps even a
gentle nudge to the reader to go out, rustle up an old Anniversary or
Pacemaker Graphic, and experience firsthand the Speed Graphic
era-which is not exactly over, as thousands are still in use in
portrait studios, photo schools, and hobby users' homes and on foot
worldwide. Most are used as view cameras on a tripod, rather than
press cameras with working rangefinders and flash (sadly, Star Wars
idiots have destroyed most of the flashguns to make
lightsabers,although the recent release of a commercial model with a
very authentic flashgun handle offers hope that one might get the
chrome parts and assemble an electronic flash with a working solenoid
shutter release). Often the focal plane shutters of Speed Graphics
(the Crown was shutterless)have been crudely ripped out.

Still they were made in such quantities that a working Graphic with
Graflok back,especially in the smaller sizes, is not that hard to
find, and most repairs can be done by hobbyists with the opriginal
manuals reprinted by Ed Romley and others. Rollfilm backs can be had,
as can Polaroid backs, if one does not want to use sheet film. Other
alternatives for hobbyists include glass plates (commercial or
homemade) or photo paper, which can be reversal processed to 10 to 25
ASA making handheld use in daylight feasible.