Photography was top hobby in 1941

[MichaelChang]

<p>PHOTOGRAPHY - 19,500,000 CAMERAS.<br>

LAST YEAR (1940), 19,000,000 amateur camera ‘fans clicked their shutters 600,000,000 times to record still pictures in the United States. They spent, during that year, more than $100,000,000 for film, supplies, and new equipment. The simple box camera, stand-by of amateurs for decades, is still top seller in American photographic stores. In 1939, the latest year for which such statistics are available, box cameras outsold all other types two to one. Of the 1,500,000 new cameras purchased that year, approximately 1,000,000 were box outfits. Miniature 35-millimeter cameras represent only about one percent of those used by American amateurs. The film most widely in demand is No. 120. Most photographed object in America is reported to be Oscar, polar bear at the Rochester, N. Y., Zoo. Eastman technicians try out new films by photographing Oscar’s white coat against a dark background.</p>

<p>Besides America’s 19,000,000 still-camera fans, there are some 500,000 home-movie enthusiasts. Eight-millimeter movie film outsells 16-millimeter in this field and, in the production of America’s leading maker of home-movie film, the Eastman company, Kodachrome leads black-and-white. More than 200 amateur movie clubs are active in the country. The number of still-camera organizations, counting both junior and adult groups, exceeds 9,000. There are about 5,000 adult clubs and approximately 4,000 school and junior photographic organizations in the country. New clubs are being formed at the rate of more than one a week. Nearly 100 such groups are active in the New York City area alone. There are camera clubs composed of doctors, of chemists, of Wall Street brokers, of telephone-company employes, of bankers, of a hundred and one other specialized groups. The largest photographic organization of the kind is one devoted to snapping railroad pictures. With headquarters in New York City, it has more than 15,000 members scattered in virtually every state in the union as well as in foreign countries. Smallest club is said to be a pictorial group with only eight members, four of which live in New York and four in Cuba. They get together for meetings at intervals of two or three years.<br>

<strong><a href="http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/11/04/americas-five-favorite-hobbies/?Qwd=./PopularScience/5-1941/five_favorite_hobbies&Qif=five_favorite_hobbies_0.jpg&Qiv=thumbs&Qis=XL#qdig"></a> </strong></p>

<p><strong><a href="http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/11/04/americas-five-favorite-hobbies/?Qwd=./PopularScience/5-1941/five_favorite_hobbies&Qif=five_favorite_hobbies_0.jpg&Qiv=thumbs&Qis=XL#qdig">Article Link</a> </strong></p>

[stsva]

<p>Sounds like there might be a future in this photography thing! :-) Very interesting post.</p>

[jimmckinnon]

<p>Great article, Michael - Thanks!</p>

[charles_stobbs3]

With digital, no one can keep track. And when people were coating their own glass plates no one could keep track. What goes around comes around.

[starvy]

<p>that club element seems to have dwindled a little over the last seventy years. in my city there is one club and with mostly old timers.</p>

[k5083]

<p>Also, photography was a "hobby" then. Now it's not, it's more a fact of life. Remember when using microcomputers was a "hobby"?</p>

 

[JDMvW]

<p>Redolent with nostalgia, but this was a time when I had just been born. Here's a Peerless ad from <em>Minicam Photography</em> (later renamed <em>Modern Photography</em> ) for December, 1941.</p>

<p>I'm not sure when the new issues were released back then, but this might still have been on some newstands at the time the USA entered the war on Dec. 7. The issue as a whole, however, shows a nation preparing for war with defense priorities affecting camera availability (a Graflex ad is <em>"for U.S.A. from US</em> ," indicating that there might be a short supply of their cameras for Christmas because of defense needs).</p>

<p>Peerless was at one time the biggest camera store in the USA and were in business until well after the war. One of the cameras offered is the Praktiflex with a f/3.5 Tessar, as well as Contaxes and Leicas and other German cameras, even though the war in Europe had been going on since late 1939, of course.</p>

<p>During the war, few if any cameras were made for civilian use, and the used market became very important. Another adverse impact on photography as a hobby was the imposition of a stiff excise tax of something like 25% on all new finished optical items such as cameras. This continued until long after the war was over and was another drag on the "hobby" in the post-war years.</p>

<p>Peerless must have had some connections into KW in Dresden, because very soon after the war had ended, they were once again bringing in a few Praktiflexes that the east Germans had managed to keep out of the hands of the Soviets, who were taking most east German camera production as war reparations.</p><div></div>

[david_barts2]

<p>What do you mean "no one can keep track" with digital? Sure, there's no analogue to film sales. But sales of camera can still be tracked. Uploads to sites like flickr and picassa can be tracked. And so on. Maybe not as strictly as one kept track of film sales, but there are still trends that can be analyzed with digital.</p>

[steve_dittmar]

<p>My uncle and my father were very active amateur photographers from the late 30's thru late 60's. We have several black and whites (they did their own developing and enlarging) but one of my favories is "parade day", taken in July of 1948, using Kodachrome slide film, which is still in excellent shape. Love those clothes (and beer signs).</p>

[steve_dittmar]

<p>Sorry, photo did not attach</p><div></div>

[MichaelChang]

<p>Great bit of history, JDM. Thank you.</p>

<p>There was only the written word prior to cameras, and it seems today's camcorders and still cameras have become indispensible in their role of documenting modern life and making art world wide. I'm glad hobbists are increasingly participating, and able to share in what was once exclusive to professionals.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Steve's photo is a reminder to all of us that shots of everyday, even pedestrian subject matter are precisely what is so often missing from the photographic record of a time and place. Next time, when you are out shooting fancy angles and arty shots, toss in a couple of documentary street scenes. If they survive, they will grow in interest as they age.</p>

 

[graham_thompson1]

<p>1941. That was when Lex did his best work.<br>

And thank you JDM. Interesting and kind of you to share.</p>

[doug grosjean]

<p>JDM wrote: "Steve's photo is a reminder to all of us that shots of everyday, even pedestrian subject matter are precisely what is so often missing from the photographic record of a time and place. Next time, when you are out shooting fancy angles and arty shots, toss in a couple of documentary street scenes. If they survive, they will grow in interest as they age."</p>

<p>Agreed.</p>

<p>Been doing that myself. Will attach a couple examples that might seem "everyday" and too mundane. Both taken from my apartment, one from living room window, and pano from at my front door, in small-town Ohio. Beer truck is funny - I looked outside, thinking of grabbing a shot to see how my new Nikon D90 would do when printing an 8x10, and there's the beer truck and the sunlight divides the street, and the guy is unloading.... took maybe 2-3 varitions, printed the best one for me. A week later, the beer truck driver bought my copy. Turns out they'd just painted the trailers, and the lighting is nice, and he's never had a photo like that:<br>

<a href="http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/60/l_33bf8dbf85bc47b7a128324f3a0a6951.jpg">http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/60/l_33bf8dbf85bc47b7a128324f3a0a6951.jpg</a></p>

<p> The pano is a weird story. I have an ex with some major issues, and she'd claimed I was stalking her over the Christmas Holidays - while my Jeep was in for repair and I was out of state visiting friends and relatives. Case eventually "disimissed with prejudice." Pano, for various reasons, was intended as part of evidence (we live 700' apart), to clarify what maps showed. Wasn't needed, but now it exists. The businesses in that photo will come and go and come and go, but this is what was there in March 2009, stitched digital from a Nikon Coolpix P&S:<br>

<a href="http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/32/l_c0a97f7d796c4eb9834e944e8492ff84.jpg">http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/32/l_c0a97f7d796c4eb9834e944e8492ff84.jpg</a></p>

<p>Below are pics from Pemberville's "Flood of February 2008."</p>

<p>Overall view of flood, pano, digital:<br>

<a href="http://static.photo.net/attachments/bboard/00O/00OOSR-41686984.jpg">http://static.photo.net/attachments/bboard/00O/00OOSR-41686984.jpg</a></p>

<p>High school kids filling sandbags, to save the town, pano, grainy b/w:<br>

<a href="http://static.photo.net/attachments/bboard/00O/00OOSG-41686684.jpg">http://static.photo.net/attachments/bboard/00O/00OOSG-41686684.jpg</a></p>

<p>A playful shot of Pemberville's Eisenhour Chevrolet, neon sign:<br>

<a href="http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/6/l_e0e6abb47e6c44429f50ba2e7784108a.jpg">http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/6/l_e0e6abb47e6c44429f50ba2e7784108a.jpg</a></p>

<p>And from Genoa, another small town about 10 miles north, a shot of Bike Nite at the local bar, May 2007. The place burned to the ground on Christmas 2007, and has since been rebuilt, keeping the lines very similar to what's shown in this pic:<br>

<a href="http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/44/l_452b44ca2c774d06b76ffc93ab9091ec.jpg">http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/44/l_452b44ca2c774d06b76ffc93ab9091ec.jpg</a></p>

<p>Except for the flood pics, these are mundane photos of everyday subjects and everyday life. The flood happens sort of annually.... About the best that can be said of them is that the basics of lighting, focus, composition are well-executed. Not slamming my own work, that's just the way it is. But the subjects really like them, and most of the photos above have been sold to somebody; either as news photos, or just because the people in them wanted a copy. Not getting rich or even making enough to live on, but it defrays my supply and equipment costs a bit.</p>

<p>I've been talking to the local library, Pemberville, about how a person goes about leaving photos like that to them, for archive / records after I'm gone. They've seen my work, and are receptive, so that's my plan. Although I'm young at 46, I'd like to think that my everyday / everybody photos would be like JDM said, and "grow in interest as they age."</p>

[SolaresLarrave]

At one time, I used to think of myself as an artist, and I wanted all my photographs to be "artistic" (that is, buildings without

people, streets without pedestrians). Then, I saw a series of slides taken by my mother in law during one trip to Europe in

the sixties... and the cars, the fashion, the people gave all those snapshots a very different quality. Now, I really don't

mind if a sign or some such "trivial" thing appears in my photographs. They are now, how shall I say, "documents" for the

future.

 

And, thank goodness, I stopped being an artist.

[MichaelChang]

<p>Franscisco, I would say that freeing yourself from boundaries makes you more of an artist. :-)</p>

<p>Those are wonderful pictures, Doug. I have a friend who recently pitched several boxes of photos inherited from his parents; what a shame.</p>

[samn]

<p>Found this epic old slide my dad took reciently in a box of old photos. It was marked 1954. Probably the Challenger or the City of San Francisco at Sacramento. Don't delete them or throw them away.</p><div></div>

[doug grosjean]

<p>Steve & Sam - beautiful shots, thanks for sharing.<br>

Michael - thanks for the kind words on my pics.</p>