Whenever I get a new piece of camera equipment, this is the first test shot I make. The photograph at top was made with my beloved Nikon FA, equipped with a new-to-me 24 mm f/2.8 AI-s lens, and exposed on Ilford HP5+ black-and-white film.
The photograph at bottom was made with a Nikkormat FT3 equipped with a 50 mm f/2 AI lens on Ilford Delta 400 Professional film. This was the first exposure I made using the camera and lens, which I had just purchased very inexpensively as a set from EBay (on the recommendation of Nikon camera guru and YouTuber, Brian Grossman.) The Nikkormat is a very well-built, solid, heavy camera that I am sure will outlast me. However, this particular copy has problems: its film-advance/shutter-cocking mechanism doesn’t always work properly. I have dropped it off for servicing at Van Cam.
For several years, I shot exclusively with a 50 mm lens. Its framing of the world, as depicted in the bottom photograph, was so imprinted upon my brain that I began to see reality carved up into its rectangles, even when I wasn’t looking through the viewfinder. Recently, I have taken up 35 mm, 28 mm, and 24 mm lenses in succession, and I am fascinated by their more expansive framelines. I want to go wider still. I am much more drawn to the top photograph than to the bottom, even though the latter shows the subject in more detail.
I seldom spend time considering self-portraits beyond their usefulness as tests of camera equipment. However, these two have got me thinking once again about self-knowledge. For my most recent musings on this endlessly slippery topic, see “From the Gods comes the saying, ‘Know Thyself’”
