Exhibition announcement:
John Sypal
April 31 - May 12, 2019 (12:00 - 19:00, Closed Mondays)
Totem Pole Photo Gallery, Tokyo
In 2009 I held my first exhibition at Totem Pole- it consisted of twenty 16x20 prints made from 6x7 negatives and was titled A Straight Line of Vision. The title reflected my discovery that rather than attempts at being clever, medium format rewards directness with clarity and detail. Back then I was shooting a lot of Fuji Presto 400 in 120 through a Pentax 67 and Mamiya 7- about 600 rolls of the stuff from 2007 to 2010. Around then Fuji killed off Presto. Not wanting to switch to a new 120 film at the time I sold off my medium format gear to focus on 35mm.
Several years later- around 2014- a friend offered me his Pentax 67II for a good price. Some time after that another friend offered me a good deal on several dozen rolls of Ilford HP-5 that he wasn’t going to shoot. Since it was still available and cheap I shot a lot of Fuji Acros in 120, too. My pile of 6x7 negatives grew but other than contact sheets I didn’t make a proper print of anything for years. Even after swapping my Pentax for a Fuji GF670 I still just kept filing the negs away. Someday, I figured.
Just a few months ago “someday” grew closer. Getting a great deal on a few hundred sheets of 11x14 RC paper online was the final piece that fell into place. Someday arrived. Well, time to put it all together and see what happens. Taking advantage of the amount of negatives compiled from the past five years this exhibition, sharing the same title as one a decade ago, will feature over one hundred 11x14 prints. Or less than a hundred. Or more? I won’t know until I start to hang the show.
In the end, the amount of detail available in a 6x7 negative is intoxicating- the generosity of the medium is fully apparent. The cameras are great fun, too. People stare at them on the street. They’re bulky and demand effort in use- they make you aware you’re taking a real picture.
This show reflects the incorporation of these cameras in life- in personal interests in people, Tokyo, and meanings found in the act of taking photographs.