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Rangefinder Magazine
September 2003

Insight/On the Cover by Bill Hurter

Light is what we see and is our primary tool as photographers. With the interplay of light and shadow, light enables us to sculpt reality, giving it the illusion of three dimensions in a two-dimensional medium. This issue, as you can see by our cover, is dedicated to those masters of light that have taken lighting to the next level. Take Berthold Steinhilber, for example, who, when he’s photographing ghost towns and other ruins, will take precisely two pictures a day—one on his Mamiya RB 67 and one on his 4x5 Silvestri—actually it’s really only one shot made on two different cameras simultaneously. He visits the site during the day, painstakingly scouting the best tripod location and begins setting up the cameras well before the sun goes down. After the twilight has faded, Berthold waits until the “blue hour” begins—roughly an hour after dusk has faded. He then opens the shutters and with a modified ship’s spotlight, he begins to paint the massive scene with light. He strokes objects, using experience as his guide as to how much or how little light to give objects. An hour or sometimes two hours later, he’s done. It’s an esoteric art form, to be sure, but the photographs are splendid and like nothing you’ve ever seen.

Just as Berthold Steinhilber photographs the invisible, so dance/fashion specialist Sarah Silver photographs high-speed motion, up close and personal. Her photographs are a symphony of form and theatrical color. Sarah’s strobes require an extremely short flash duration to freeze all of the motion in the frame. Since she often works in close proximity to her subjects or at high image magnifications, the action is actually speeded up, especially the models’ extremities like arms and feet. Since Sarah likes her work crisp, where you can see every detail and texture, the light not only must be flattering and soft, but it must do the job of freezing every little bit of motion. While her striking images often compose themselves, the element of extreme skill is in the ways Sarah controls her light.

Bill Hurter
Editor

ON THE COVER

PHOTOGRAPHER: Berthold Steinhilber
TITLE: 1937 Chevy; Bodie, California
CAMERA: 4x5 Silvestri
LENS: Schneider 90mm XL
FILM: Kodak EPY
EXPOSURE: One and one half hours at f/16
LIGHTING: Converted ship’s spotlight powered by a 12V car battery
COMMENTS: The eerie remains of a 1937 Chevrolet coupe in front of some of Bodie, California’s surviving structures serves as the book’s jacket cover as well as ours. A fire in 1932, set off by a boy playing with matches, destroyed most of Bodie’s buildings and they were never rebuilt. Even the revival of an inactive gold mine failed to give the place a boost, and in the 1940s, Bodie became a true ghost town. Photographer Berthold Steinhilber is inspired by unique views of dying places, which he approaches with a love of nostalgia. He has patiently probed the mysteries of abandoned Western towns with a view camera, and told writer Lou Jacobs Jr. that he estimates long exposures through experience. It makes sense because painting with light defies an exposure meter. For more details on Steinhilber’s unique technique, see senior technique, see “Creative Light in the Dark,” which begins on page 22.