"Rangefinder Perspectives" show in the works

Preparations for the upcoming "Rangefinder Perspectives" exhibition at local gallery Corso are now in full swing. Opening is scheduled for Friday, January 27th, 7:30pm.

"Rangefinder Perspectives" originated as a project in the photo club of which I am a member. Triggered by similar initiatives by the online Rangefinder Forum, we decided to put together a book with pictures from club members taken only with rangefinder cameras. Our first choice was to make use of the printing-on-demand service offered by lulu.com. We finally settled for an offset printing option which was barely more expensive. In fact, the book was put together in an exceedingly short space of time thanks to the efforts of Johan Doumont (who designed the book) and Jef Schoors (who was able to get a very good deal for us at the printer's).

350 copies of the book were printed, 200 of which have been sold by now. I am happy to say that quite a few members of the online Rangefinder Forum have been kind enough to purchase a copy. "Rangefinder Perspectives" is now lying on photo enthusiasts' tables all over Europe, in the US, Canada and Brazil!

The exhibition was really an afterthought. In fact, when Corso's owner, Bert Verlinden, heard of our initiative, he immediately offered us his gallery walls for a show. This is a great opportunity to have our modest efforts shown in ideal circumstances: it will be difficult to find a more beautiful and luxurious photo gallery in the whole of Belgium, I believe.

Some 60 photographs will be on view (all of them featured in the book, of course). I selected two 35mm frames and four 6x6 images. The latter have been printed at 60x60cm on archival photo rag paper by Bert's Epson 7800. The Leica/Bessa pictures I printed myself on the Epson 2400 at size 30x40cm.

I will follow up with a report of the opening night.