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Lords of the Landscape
(Shades of Gray)
August 2001
Outdoor Photographer
The field of outdoor photography gives us not only a seemingly endless
array of subjects to put before our lenses, but multiple artistic and
technical ways to do it. As we move into the 21st century, many of us
choose color photography-both digital and conventional-as our creative
medium. Some photographers, such as Michigan-based Monte Nagler, have
opted to express themselves monochromatically and carry on the time-honored
tradition of black-and-white.
Outdoor Photographer: Why do you choose to work primarily in black-and-white?
Monte Nagler: To me, it's more artistic. It's more emotional. In
my opinion, creativity in color for the most part ends when you hit the
shutter release. From that point on, it's getting a print with the proper
colors. It's more of a mechanical thing.
With black-and-white, the creativity is only half over when you take the
picture. The whole other half is in the darkroom-what you can do in the
darkroom with the picture. People ask if I ever send my negatives out
to a lab, and I say "no," because the thought of doing that, to me, is
no different than a painter handing a half-finished canvas to somebody
and saying, "Hey, finish this for me."
I'm not knocking color because I do shoot color as well, but color photographs
are more or less a document of what something looks like, while I feel
black-and-white is more interpretive. A really neat analogy is that color
photography is like going to see a movie: black-and-white is like reading
a book.
Outdoor Photographer: Do you work strictly in a traditional darkroom?
Monte Nagler: I'm kind of old-fashioned. I shoot a 4x5, a Linhof
Technikardan, and with four lenses; a 90mm, a 135mm, a 210mm and a 300mm.
When need be,my favorite filter is a red, which I use to add drama to
the sky. I love dramatic skies.
With the 4x5-and you're looking at the ground glass-you're looking at
an upside down and backward image. Your vision is enhanced. You really
start seeing through what I call "square eyeballs." I love working with
large negatives, too. I use a Beseler 4x5 with a cold light head. You
get great tonal range and values with the cold light. I really like Ilford
Multigrade IV paper. All0fiber paper. All selenium-toned. To me, the true
art of photography is getting my hands wet in the developer in the darkroom.
Outdoor Photographer: What do you go out and look for in a scene?
Monte Nagler: Most of my trips are just wandering trips. I go somewhere
that I want to photograph and just look around and stumble upon things;
that's the most fun. I do six or seven trips a year, including a two-week
workshop, always to a different place. This summer we're going to Italy.
Outdoor Photographer: You started out in the field of photography
relatively late.
Nagler: I never took a photograph until I was 30 years old. If
somebody had told me while I was in my 20s that I'd end up being a photographer,
I'd have laughed at them. I went to the University of Michigan, and I
have an undergraduate degree in Engineering and a master's in Business
Administration. I became a product planner at Ford Motor Co., designing
and planning concepts of future cares. I then opened up a couple of muffler
shops.
I stumbled onto photographer one day, and got into it as an avid hobbyist.
All through my 30s, I became more and more involved in it. Then, in 1979,
I did Ansel Adams' workshop and really got excited and turned on. It was
Ansel who suggested that I work with a 4x5 camera.
Due to his influence, I decided to take a big chance at the age of 42.
I sold my muffler shops and began to try and make a living out of my hobby
of fine-art black-and-white photography. Better to try and fail, than
to never try. It's been 18 years, and it's going better and better.
I'm actually living a fantasy. It's the best job in the world. What could
be better than going around the world and photographing?
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