Obsessively Anxious Lenses?
This is a true story.
Flashback to photo school in the 70’s. The instructor in a white lab coat recited the technical characteristics of curvilinear and rectilinear lenses, shooting out facts like a machine gun. I had to scribble notes in fast motion and wished he’d slow the heck down.
Our instructor was oozing professionalism and had a dazzling knowledge about the science of photography.
I thought he said rectal-linear lenses and with all my small-town boy innocence, was a little taken aback that he’d be so direct, but also quite impressed that they could predict how a photographer was going to lean with her or his work, actually muttering “wow” to myself. All I knew was that I didn’t want to be anal or obsessively anxious with my own work, so made a mental note to avoid the rectal-linear lenses in the future.
"Native Epistemology" detail and what is clearly not a rectal-linear lens diagram. It's from one of my own most honored lenses, a Hasselblad 80mm Planar. Lithograph collaboration by myself and Frank Janzen at the Crow's Shadow Art Institute.
The "Native Epistemology" print at my website. The lens diagram is in the top left.
PS: A rectilinear lens renders lines as being fairly straight, as opposed to a curvilniar lens, which has what is known as barrel distortion, kind of like what extreme wide-angle lenses render. Each has it’s own set of physics & mathematical formulas.
Tamarind Art Institute link to the Migrations Project
Native Epistemology Larry McNeil link
Migrations: New Directions in Native American Art Amazon link to the book
