As explained by London, Stone and Upton, in their photography text book, Photography, “While modern small-camera films (1 x 1 ½ inches is the size of 35mm film) and digital cameras can make excellent enlargements, the greatest image clarity and detail and the least grain are produced from a large-size negative or capture area.”[1] A large format camera, also known as a view camera, is a camera often associated with older photographic processes. The iconic image of the photographer with their head and shoulders hidden under a black cloth behind a massive boxy camera on a tripod, while their hand sticks out the side with a shutter release, is one of the most known visual references of the medium. It is in fact this accordion-like camera with its wall of glass in the back that is used to make large format photographs. The design of the camera includes its front lens panel and back frame of ground glass, which is connected by a middle portion called the bellows that looks like a black accordion. The bellows, made of a malleable material that is light tight, allows for the many movements of the camera that make it so unique. Not only can the bellows expand from several inches to several feet or more, depending on the size of the camera, it also allows the maneuverability of the front and back panel to individually be moved up, down, left, right, front and back. These movements are referred to as the rise and fall, shift, tilt and swing, they allow the photographer to change and control the image in the camera giving them the ability to “change the area of a scene that will be recorded, select the most sharply focused plane, or alter the shape of the subject itself.”[2]
Large format photography is still used by contemporary fine art photographers, including Sally Mann, Gregory Crewdson, Marry Ellen Mark, Emmet Gowin and Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre. Though the equipment is cumbersome and the process painstaking at times, many fine art photographers still rely on this bulky camera for its unique abilities.