A nostalgic break from puppy training

4x5 Combat Graphic

 

My pup, Loki, is now becoming house-broken so I literally have less on my hands, so…

 

Turn on the way-back machine to 1962. The Oahe Reservoir on the Upper Missouri in central South Dakota was nearing completion.

 

Most of the rescue archaeology had already been done, but there were some areas of the Sully site (late prehistoric in this area = ca. 1790s to early 1800s - Oahe Reservoir: Archeology, Geology, History (Archeological Investigations in the Oahe Reservoir) ) which had not been investigated and the site was soon to be inundated and likely destroyed by slumping once the reservoir was filled.

 

I was the assistant crew chief, photographer, and bottle washer using two cameras supplied to me.

One is the camera that is the subject of this remembrance of “temps perdu” - the 4x5 Combat Graphic:

 

 

The other was a Kodak Signet 35 for slides. Shooting it was an experience that scarred me for life, leaving deep psychic wounds.

I shall speak no more of that camera…..

The 4x5 Combat Graphic was the “marine version” (for reasons having to do with some Marines (not, please not “former marines”) in the River Basin Surveys office of the Smithsonian in Lincoln, NE.

 

Our flags;

I had never shot 4x5 before. but came to love this camera. We used Plus-X film packs mostly - later in my 4x5 career we used Tri-X:

 

Glad you're having some success with training your puppy, JDM. Great photo, btw. Never used a Combat Graphic. The only 4x5 cameras I've used are a Crown Graphic (still have it) and a Burke & James view camera. Never used a Signet 35, but an aunt of mine took hundreds of Kodachrome slides in pre-Castro Cuba when she and my uncle worked for Hersheys. They managed a sugar cane plantation. I have about a dozen 8x10 prints from those days.

My inner artiste was obviously stimulated

 

at creative work

Afterwards, I used standard Graphics cameras as long as the films were available, but that is another story.

 

 

At this site, there were about 50 to 75cm of wind-blown soil on top of the levels that the Native Americans had lived on, so a scraper could be used with very little risk of damage to cultural levels.

 

This greatly aided the discovery of previously unknown portions of the site that did not show on the surface.

 

We also had troubles with looters, here some “professional” medical persons who had flown in from Bismarck.

I think this still may be my most-published photograph, though without a credit line.

 

Here is part of a circular earth lodge floor and the entry-way into the house.

 

Here are some members of the archaeological collective, not taken with the Signet or the Graphic, BTW:

 

Our Motto:

Fascinating stuff, JDM! I can easily understand your nostalgia; those must have been happy and productive days, and that's a pretty fit and healthy-looking group of young men . My earliest sheet film camera was a 4x5 Speed Graphic, but I've not handled the Combat Graphic. Tri-X developed in Ilford Microphen was my standard large format material for many years. Thanks for a really interesting post, even if I don't think the Signet is quite as bad as you maintain. And I'm pleased to hear that the puppy poop is diminishing; having bred gun dogs for a decade or so in my misbegotten youth, I don't think I want to go back there...

We were young, thin, muscular -like gods were we. It was a nice time to be there.

I had the wrong idea that all Graphics were more or less for combat. That camera looks indeed well hardened.

 

The tripod in the first one is also impressive equipment . Those pictures should have come out sharp in Plus-X or in any film. .

 

I hope the scientific goals were achieved at the same level than the photographic ones.

The Combat Graphic is not much heavier than the contemporary Anniversary Speed Graphic and while the wooden housing does make for tougher "bellows", it doesn't feel like a much sturdier camera in my opinion. Also, I feel the Kodak 127mm f/4.7 Anastigmat Special could've benefited a lot from coating.

 

But I agree with JDM's sentiment that they're fine cameras to work with.

 

My 'restored' Combat Graphic, which had been 'demobbed' after the war:

Thanks, Rick.

 

If the film wasn't both "rare" and expensive and processing so more-than-I-can-handle-right-now, I'd love to be shooting with one of these again. I have toyed with getting a more standard press model, but the self-censor has so far kicked in before I actually bid.

from Modern Photography 1941-12

The US was not officially in the war at the time this was printed, but that changed soon after.

Of course, that ad is from Minicam Photography not "modern" -- its later direct descendant .