The old-fashioned way

Cheryl Hofmann discusses her silver gelatin prints with student Luke Nilsson. Hofmann uses ia Rolliflex from the 1940s and a Mamiya C330 from the 1960s, both twin-lens reflex cameras producing 2 1/4 by 2 1/4 negatives for her process. “You have to compose looking down, you spend time with your subject. It is not a quick process with a TLR.” She returned to SCCC after graduation as photo assistant. Most of the students, including Luke, are interested in the older film-based processes of photography, rather than in working with digital cameras, Hofmann said. “The old stuff is easier to figure out,” she explained. “Everything people do on a computer, you learn in the darkroom.”