This series focuses on those who take the making of pictures a step or two further, creating their own photographic tools.

George R. Lawrence, Chicago, IL

At the turn of the last century, photographer George R. Lawrence’s Chicago studio had earned a reputation for innovation and excellence in the field of photography. With the slogan: The Hitherto Impossible in Photography is Our Specialty, Lawrence was called upon by companies all over the United States to engineer photographic solutions specially tailored to their needs. In 1899, one commission would earn him a place in the history books. The Chicago & Alton Railway company had just introduced the Alton Limited, an express train between Chicago and St. Louis. Dubbed the “handsomest train in the world,” each of the six Pullman cars were perfectly symmetrical and every window identical. In order to publicize the entirety of train’s stunning exterior, the railway reached out to Lawrence to make an 8-foot-long photograph.  

After rejecting Lawrence’s first suggestion to photograph the train in sections and composite them together, the photographer and his team proposed the construction of a camera large enough to make an 8-foot-long glass plate negative, which became the largest camera in the world. Constructed from natural cherry wood by camera manufacturer J.A. Anderson, the camera was able to hold a glass plate eight feet by four-and-a-half feet, and weighed 900 pounds. With the plate holder, the weight was 1,400 pounds. Equipped with bespoke Zeiss lenses (also the largest lenses ever made) and bellows large enough to hold six people, the camera required a team of 15 people to operate it.

Once the camera was completed, it had to be moved first by van and then by train to a field near Brighton Park for the photoshoot. On a clear spring day in 1900, four men inserted the mammoth glass plate while another six operated the bellows and lens. Lawrence timed the exposure for two-and-a-half minutes and made the picture. The resulting 8-foot-long negative was crisp and clear, required gallons of chemicals to develop. Although Lawrence was awarded the Grand Prize for World Photographic Excellence for this feat, the photograph was subject to intense scrutiny with officials skeptical of one camera’s ability to create such a large, single image.  

Have you made or modified your own photographic equipment? Let us know at info@donttakepictures.com