Monday, June 19, 2017

Email: Kurt Moser, Great Wet Plate Photographer, And Great Guy!

I have exchanged an email with Kurt Moser, the wonderful wet plate photographer in Italy I wrote about earlier.
http://gerryyaum.blogspot.ca/2017/06/kurt-moser-amazing-ambrotype.html

Here are some highlights from his message. I asked about his lens and asked if he gives workshops. What a great generous man, just like Jock Sturges several years ago, Kurt was very open with all my questions. I love it when world class photographers do not have secrets and share with everyone. I asked his permission to post what he sent me here it is lens part of the email:
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Hi Gerry

Sorry for being late with my answer !!  Here i am , getting ready to go up in the mountains tomorrow morning with my new camera !! ;-)

First , thanks a lot for the Article on you're Blog , i checked you're work and i a amazed !!!   like what you do Gerry !!!  great Job in Thailand  !!!

So , for you're questions :

i have two lenses for the Ural Truck , a 1780mm f14 Apo Nikkor and a 1000mm f3,5 Leitz Epis  , the Nikkor was incredibly difficult to get , it took me 2 years to find it , it is one of 5 existing on this planet as far as i know ...

For my other cameras  ( the 20x24 inch Baby from 1907  and my new 35x35inch Aluminium Camera ) i use Apo Nikkors and Leitz Epis too :

Apo Nikkor 480mm  f9
Apo Nikkor 610mm  f9
Apo Nikkor 890mm  f11
Apo Nikkor 1210mm f12,5

Leitz Epis 480mm  f3
Leitz Epis 600mm  f3
Leitz Epis 700mm  f3,5
Leitz Epis 800mm  f4,8
Leitz Epis 1000mm f3,5
..
and some nice Aero Ektar and Charles Beseler Lenses , i have a huge Liesegang Meganast 1000mm 3,5 too ..


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Hope this helps Gerry , there are a lot of great lenses around , its just a matter of testing them ;-)


Kurt
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In the other parts of the email, Kurt gave me some colodion advice (starting out in the smaller wet plate formats 8x10 etc). He encouraged my work, my trips to Thailand, my plans for ambrotypes etc. He also very generously asked me to visit his home so that we could work together. What a wonderfully humble man, what a great guy! Think we are going to be friends!