Fusion Fest on 4x5: A Practical Application of an Impractical Format
September 17, 2024A large format 4x5 Camera has it’s practical applications. The massive size of a 4x5 negative is something that still can’t be found in a digital equivalent (outside of the brief rise and fall of the scan back digital sensors) and still works as an important and unique image making tool. The camera is heavy, cumbersome, and daunting, requiring a good amount of time to meter, focus the bellows, adjust your settings, insert your film holder, pull the dark slide, and then hope as you depress the shutter release. There are things these cameras can do that people don’t even consider in the digital age allowing for nuance and manipulation from the moment of capture, through the entire process of development and printing. A camera like this forces the limits of focus and patience. This setup doesn’t go unnoticed and whoever is on the other side of the lens is well aware of your presence and anticipation at that moment of capture.
I recently had the opportunity to photograph at a local cultural festival in South Bend, IN; The Fusion Fest 2024. This festival is a modern reinterpretation of an older annual Ethnic Festival. The festival was held annually from 1974 until 2004 when it was cancelled by the city following several years of what has been coined as “vandalism and fights”. How bad were these fights and vandalism? I have no idea, but with the past events shutting down the festival for nearly 20 years the city now takes a very strict approach to this rebirth as The Fusion Festival. This is the second annual new Fusion Festival held in the city with a strict policy to not allow any “professional cameras with interchangeable lenses” into the event without a press pass. I joked to an acquaintance who was heading the media coverage for the event, Adam Raschka, that I should try to bring in my smaller 9x12cm camera since it was never “professional” and has a fixed lens. Fortunately for me, he was nice enough to get me a press pass to the event to bring a camera. Their team had plenty of people to do comprehensive coverage of the weekend’s events, so I was let loose to photograph what I found interesting throughout the day.
The camera I used for most of the day was a Speed Graphic from about 1950, affixed with a daunting and heavy Kodak Aero Ektar 178mm lens. The lens opens up to a nice f/2.5 which makes it an amazing portrait lens especially on a 4x5. It is usably wide at about a 50mm full frame equivalent for magnification. There is also a considerable amount of tilt that you can put into the front element which I tried to use to my advantage in several shots. This camera was on loan to me from Jon Gilcrist, or Used Jon as they call him at the local camera store, for the weekend. The number of people that just wanted to come look at the camera or ask about it was amazing. Since it isn’t super practical, it isn’t everyday that you see a camera like this in action. I also met several people that I only knew of in theory or from interactions online prior to the day. It was nice to actually meet many of you for the first time.
I was only able to bring 20 sheets of film with me, mostly because of weight and the space needed to store them as I worked through shots. The film stock mainly consisted of an expired box of Kodak Pan-X a pretty decent black and white stock that had gone out of production in 2011. This film came with the added benefit of having expired around the same time as the original Ethnic Festival itself. Much like the reimagined version of the Ethnic Festival, this film was still viable and interesting as I sought to bring some life back into it. There are also a couple shots on Fuji X-Ray Ortho film and one on Harmon Direct Positive Paper. With mostly diffused light coming through the tents the Harmon paper was underwhelming, but I do enjoy the one shot included. 20 sheets was also a choice since it made sure that while there was still a lot to develop it would still be in the realms of manageable.
I had to take a couple of breaks throughout the day, because in total I was carry just over 40 pounds of equipment in my two bags for several hours which took much more of a toll on me that I thought. It wasn’t so much the weight, as it was the awkward process of navigating crowds safely with a giant camera, lens, and tripod combo that weights over 25lbs. I even stuck around to get a photo of the end of night drone show because who else has taken a photo of a modern drone show with an antique camera? Probably no one.
