Old School Flash Photography

I was driving from Sheboygan down to Milwaukee yesterday and caught this story on NPR about A Vintage Photography Flash in Action discussing how Race Gentry, from San Diego, still uses a magnesium powder flash. This story was an interesting follow-on to the story about Jacob Riis: Shedding Light on NYC’s ‘Other Half’, who was a Danish immigrant who photographed and wrote about NYC slum housing back in the late 19th century. Since the slums were always dark and the insides of the rooms were windowless, he also was a user of the magnesium powder flash.

Both stories provide an interesting view into an area of flash photography that probably isn’t covered much on Strobist! It’s good to see that Gentry has taken an interest in this historical part of photography and still uses the technique today.

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