Digital BW, The Print

Hi Clayton,

I knew Fred superficially through his workshops and phone and letter
conversations and he was a difficult person in many ways. His earlier
photographs such as his Iceland portfolio were above pedestrian in
quality but his later work just didn't click with me. He did have a good
eye for photographs and he had a nice collection of prints. He could
also give a valuable critique if one wasn't thin skinned. What else he
could do, however, was teach and his workshops were in my view a great
stepping stone to good darkroom practice. He came right out and said his
business was not fine art photography, since he couldn't make a living
at it but rather he had a mail order photographic supply business. He
did have some success at commercial architectural photography. Some of
his gadgets, especially those designed by Paul Horowitz of seti fame, as
you said, were a fantastic help. I recently sold  my wet darkroom gear
and all of the Picker stuff went quickly despite their age. He was an
interesting fellow particularly over dinner with a bottle of good wine.

Roger

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Roger L Sopher
rlsopher@...
http://deCorrales.com
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