8x10 View Camera

Mural Fest, Odessa, Texas, 2023

I shared my 8x10 view camera with people at the Odessa Art Association’s booth at Mural Fest and answered questions. For many, it was their first time seeing a camera like this up close. The camera is fun and laborious, and my job is to prevent the work from overtaking what’s enjoyable.

My camera’s production date is unknown: 1960s perhaps, by L.F. Deardorff and Sons of Chicago: a design dating back to the 1920s. I’ve had this one since 2012 and purchased used on eBay.

It’s a bare-bone photographic experience that allows one or two shots per outing, with sheet film that’s eight by ten inches.

I use tray processing to develop my film, where I’ll stand in complete darkness with a developer bath for eight minutes, individually cycling sheets repeatedly every thirty to fifty seconds.

I use a 300mm lens. The 300mm is a standard focal length for 8x10 cameras. The lens projects an image onto a glass pane, where everything appears upside down because light travels in straight lines.

The lens houses the camera’s shutter and aperture.