In late 2021 my mother-in-law passed away. Sue was a huge cheerleader of mine and showed me the excitement I was always hoping my own mom would have about my photography. She had been asking me to make prints for her to hang up in the house and it was the weekend when I finally got started on sifting through my portfolio to decide what I would get printed for her that we got the news of her passing. We hopped on a plane to Iowa to go celebrate her life and begin the process of cleaning the house. I had just picked up a dusty old Ricoh 500G at an antique store to clean up and decided to test it out during our trip out to the Midwest. It's a small 1970s rangefinder from Japan with a sturdy steel body. The foam on the back door of the camera was a bit melted, but at the risk of light leaks, I stuck a roll of Lomography Metropolis 35mm film in it and was ready to go.Â
My wife's hometown in Iowa is small, at least relative to anywhere I've lived. While one-half of the town is new and developing with big box stores, there is the "old town" downtown of decades past that sits half-occupied. Now, if you know me, you know I love a good downtown strip (bonus points if it's in some way historic) and Fort Dodge has some nice old buildings full of potential. Processing so many feelings around death, it felt extra fitting to walk through old downtown in early winter, imagine what it looked like here 30, 50, or 100 years ago, and think about what the turning point was for the decline of this once-bustling street. And as we walked, I snapped photos, hoping to capture the somber essence I felt on the inside. Later that day, we held Sue's celebration of life and it was a great burst of color to brighten a dreary day.
After the festivities were over, it was time to get down to business. As we sorted through the house, I discovered a very beat-up Kodak Duaflex III. The thing was rusted and the lens was foggy, but after looking it up and down it seemed mechanically functional, but in great need of some TLC. There was one roll of exposed film inside, Kodak's 620mm film which is the same as 120mm medium format film, but on a shorter spool. It was Kodak's attempt to corner the film market; if you want a medium-format Kodak camera, you better buy Kodak's 620 film. It ran from 1932 and bit the dust in 1995; 120mm is what persists today for medium format. Thankfully, The Film Photography Project is doing the lords work and re-spooling film from 120mm rolls on 620mm spools meaning that this camera is not obsolete!
Once we got home, I got right to work on restoring Sue's camera. I wish I had the foresight to document the restoration process, or at least a before and after photo, but I think this felt like a very personal process... Also, a tense one because I wasn't about to let myself make a mistake. I picked up some rust remover goo, a wire brush, and gathered my tools to take it all apart. This camera uses a waist-level viewfinder and the lid that protects the glass was nearly all the way stuck. So I began just unscrewing everything from the top down, cleaning as I went. The magnifying glass and the mirror inside were absolutely filthy, as well as the lens, and I'm hoping that it was just dirt rather than mold. The hardest part was removing the rust from the side of the body where the winding knob and exposure button are placed. I did five rounds of applying rust remover, waiting, then scrubbing until I got rid of any trace of the rust. The rust and the removal process significantly corroded the metal, so it feels delicate and looks a bit raw, but it is ready to shoot! I had to remove some fabric pads from the hinges of the viewfinder to allow it to open smoothly, but everything else seemed to be in working order! I ordered a roll of 620mm Ilford Delta 100 from TFPP and took the Duaflex for a spin.
IÂ brought the camera with me when we went up to Seattle to watch the Sharks play the Kraken as a birthday gift to me and judiciously crafted my photos because of how few exposures I have at my disposal in medium format. This has been the most rudimentary camera IÂ have ever operated as they manufactured these from 1947 - 1960. I had to experiment with the best ways to hold the camera to get stability while also being able to reach for the exposure button on the bottom right, but I don't think I've perfected it just yet. The other tricky part has been framing the shot from a mirrored waist-level view, so when IÂ want to get my lines just right in the composition, IÂ have to remember to fight my muscle memory and tilt the camera in the opposite direction. It has been a blast getting to know this camera and I wish I could share my experiences with Sue along the way.
I didn't know what to expect from my test shoot, but here are my favorites from that roll of film:
There are still some kinks I need to work out, but I love a challenge... Stay tuned for more!