Just five or six years after I began printing black and white I studied with George Tice, a master printer and photographer. My print quality soared when I learned his technique of “Making the Fine Photographic Print.” With this new approach, I realized one of the strengths of the medium is its ability to deliver an extremely long range of tones. My prints became beautiful.

Some of my earliest influences like André Kertèsz, Edward Weston and most of the early masters worked exclusively in black & white, too. And so my path was before me.

What specific equipment do you use? Do you also use digital equipment or color film?

I began shooting in 1972 with a 35 mm Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic and went on to using a series of five lenses. Interestingly, it was the sound of the Spotmatic’s shutter release over a rock & roll band that actually captured my attention.

After a few years, I moved almost exclusively to Nikon equipment for 35 mm format. For medium format, 6×7 cm, I use the Mamiya RB67, a SLR, and the Mamiya 7II, a range finder. I also use a Cambo view camera and a Speed Graphic field camera, both for 4×5 formats.

Wildlife Biologist with Immature Bald Eagle
(Near the Town of Catskill, New York)
© Joseph Squillante, 2000

In 1979 I started working with a Polaroid SX-70 camera that produced an instant square format print. I found that a completely different energy was taking place when composing inside the square frame, so I had a Nikon F reformatted to almost a square shape so that I could continue working in that format with black & white film. (Almost a square because I still wanted the option of creating a vertical if I needed to.)

In June of 2008 I purchased my first digital camera, a Canon 5D classic, and I have been working exclusively with it since, testing out its capabilities. (I went with Canon because of its full-frame digital sensor.) However, as I have so much more control with film, the jury is still out on moving completely to digital. In my opinion, film offers more warmth and richness as well as more detail and depth. The edges are natural as is much of the light that I work in. I too find that the digital camera, especially in low light, is not capable of a precise rendering of the subject as would film.

I also feel that prints made by hand are somehow more precious and jewel-like. Digital photography is not made by hand. And lastly I pose a question… is the digital print really a photograph? “Photo” means light and “graph” means drawing… so a drawing with light. Silver prints are exposed with light while pigment prints are sprayed with ink.

Food for thought!