It’s the Season To Give and PHSNE Is Doing Its Share!

The good news is that many schools are participating in a revival of analog photography and teaching basic darkroom skills as part of their photography programs. Outreach coordinator Holly Worthington reports that many of these schools are in great need of working 35mm SLR film cameras and lenses in good shape. We have a large assortment of darkroom equipment at the warehouse available for donation to schools, and we can supply film, development, and darkroom printing equipment to film photographers at a very low cost. If you have photo equipment to donate, contact Holly at educameras@phsne.org.

Leitz Focomat V35 autofocusing enlarger

For those who have moved completely to digital, this is a very good opportunity to repurpose your analog photo equipment. Recently two PHSNE members picked up two enlargers with a large number of accessories donated by retired newspaper photographer Keith E. Jacobson. The three top pieces are a professional Arkay RC 1100 print dryer, a Beseler 45M CRX enlarger with a motorized track, a 50mm El-Nikkor f/2.8 lens, and a separate cold light illumination head. The Beseler 4×5 should find a good home, as promised to Keith. The third item is a Leitz Focomat v35 enlarger with matched 40mm enlarging lens. Many consider the Leitz to be the finest 35mm enlarger made, with very accurate autofocus.

Another example of PHSNE outreach resulted in a recent donation to the Cape Ann Museum. On a visit there,

Stereo card viewer donation

PHSNE President John Felix noticed stereo cards of fishing vessels on display, but there was no stereo viewer. He inquired and was told that the museum did not have one. None were available at the warehouse, so John put out a request to the membership, and one member offered to send one from his collection and added some additional stereo cards for good measure.

In his acknowledgment, Trenton Carls, the museum’s head librarian and archivist, wrote: “I’m thrilled to report that a stereo viewer has arrived safely at the Museum! What an extremely kind gesture; we are very grateful for this gift and it will be put to great use right away in the galleries and through our Education Departments’ efforts to share this early tech with students. The additional (stereoscope)  cards of the dinner party are pretty great, too!”

Watch this space for a recap of the December 2022 Show & Tell – stay tuned!