For Kirk Crippens, Portraitlandia was also an experiment with new equipment. Using a loaned 4×5 camera with an array of lenses, he stood under a cover behind the view finder and took his time to get the exposure right.
“Using a slow, old process, getting under a cloth, having subjects look through the viewfinder. It made the project,” says Crippens. “It’s not like 20 minutes when you’re working with digital. I asked for two hours of peoples’ time. Subjects’ patience grew from the novelty of the process; it allowed them to get comfortable.”
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Al Margulies, writer, retired bus driver and one-man local transit watchdog
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