Rangefinder Magazine
February 2006

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Profile: Lynn Radeka Harvey Goldstein
Photographing the Southwest in Living Color and Living Black and White

Road, Autumn (East Orange, Vermont, 1999)— In this trip to the Northeast, Lynn had been disappointed because the autumn colors were rather bland until he came upon this location of spectacular colors. The transparency was made with 4x5 Kodak Ektachrome film and a 121mm Super Angulon lens. The colors were brilliant because of the overcast conditions. Lynn’s feelings on this image: “I like how the ‘S’ curve of the road is accentuated by the yellow line, which mirrors the surrounding warm colors nicely.”

Seattle, Twilight (Seattle, WA 1996)—Lynn made this image from a hillside south of Seattle at twilight. He waited for the sky to darken enough so the blue color of the sky would not be blown out in comparison to the other values of the image. The window of opportunity for an image such as this is approximately 45 minutes to an hour after sunset, depending on a number of variables. Lynn made this image with a 4x5 view camera with Kodak Ektachrome film and a 121mm Schneider lens. The exposure was approximately 15 seconds, which helped to create the motion of the car lights and strengthen the “S” curve of the freeways. The red of the cars’ taillights was a nice complement to the green of the city lights.

Lynn Radeka’s images of the Southwest grab you like no other. His color and black-andwhite photographs spring to life, putting you in the middle of the vast expanse, even if you are viewing them in your living room in New England. Lynn’s love of nature and the outdoors shines through in each of his photographs.

Stumps and Mist (Mt. Baker National Forest, WA, 1999)—The background mist, caused by the spray from the nearby waterfall, created depth and dimension. This image was created with 4x5 Tri-X film with a 121mm Schneider Super Angulon lens.

Lynn became fascinated by Death Valley, California, in the mid-1960s. This led him to an interest in the national parks and monuments as well as many conservation and preservation issues. When Lynn began college in 1969 he intended to major in chemistry, but his love for the outdoors led him to forestry; his thoughts remained with Death Valley and the many beautiful locations in the American West.

With a 35mm camera that he received as a high school graduation gift, and timeless black-and-white photographs of the American West as inspiration, Lynn set out to translate his experience in Death Valley into photographs. Photography helped him enjoy and appreciate the beauty of the Southwest more deeply, and it gave him great satisfaction to create something tangible from something he saw and felt.

Fence and Pier (Port Townsend, WA, 1977)— Lynn noticed this white fence on a dark lawn on a bluff overlooking downtown Port Townsend; he was taken with the gentle curve. The background pier, black against the light gray ocean completed the “S” curve of this image. Lynn used a 210mm Symmar lens on his 4x5 with Tri-X film. After composing the image, he stopped down the lens to approximately f/64 to gain as much depth of field from the foreground to infinity as possible. He used a Mild Unsharp Mask during printing and a Shadow Contrast Increase Mask (SCIM) to liven up the foreground grass.

He later purchased a 4x5 view camera and eventually met with Ansel Adams and Wynn Bullock. The encouragement they offered during their critiques of his prints prompted Lynn to continue photographing even more enthusiastically, taking lengthy trips periodically throughout the American West in search of images.

In the early 1980s Lynn was commissioned to photograph Canada, a project that took six weeks traveling by car and generated thousands of color images. A few years later, he began selling many of his blackand- white images as fine art duotone posters of the western United States’ national parks. He has recently been included in a book titled World’s Top Photographers: Landscape (RotoVision, 2003).

In 1989, a two-year book assignment resulted in the publication of five color books with Lynn’s photographs. The assignment took him to ghost towns, grand historic hotels, legendary towns, forts and battlefields throughout the American West. This experience taught Lynn to appreciate these places from a photographic perspective. Among his favorite places to photograph are Death Valley National Park, Canyonlands National Park (as well as the surrounding wilderness in southern Utah) and the Pacific Northwest.

Water Forms, Sulfur Creek (Mt. Baker National Forest, Washington, 1978)—Lynn says, “I was photographing along Sulfur Creek in the Mt. Baker National Forest area on a drizzly day. As I turned my 4x5 to line up a different shot, I noticed this clean and flowing composition, upside down, while looking at the groundglass screen. The camera isolated these forms and eliminated any distracting elements.” The Tri-X film was developed in Kodak HC-110. The fine print utilizes a SCIM to intensify the crisp quality of the black volcanic boulder.

Print quality in Lynn’s black-and-white photography has always been an obsession. His film of preference is 4x5 Tri-X developed in Kodak HC-110. He uses an old 4x5 Super Cambo view camera, which he squeezes into his backpack for hikes in the wilderness.

Lynn found it challenging to create a fine print with tactile values throughout the entire tonal range. During the mid-1970s he experimented with some success with various contrast masking techniques. However, it was not until 1989 that the full potential of contrast masking opened up to him.

Moon Over Zabriskie Point (Death Valley National Park, California, 1980)—This image was created shortly after sunrise, before the sunlight bathed the foreground mud hills. Within minutes after Lynn made the exposure, the clouds covered the moon and the interesting metaphor of moon and “moonscape” was lost. Lynn says that although the negative was properly exposed and developed and contained good clean values throughout, his interpretation of the negative made it difficult to make the print he sought. He burned down the sky and background mountain range to achieve a good tonal balance. He did localized bleaching by hand on the entire mountain range using his highlight brightener formula, enhancing the morning sunrise.

He now utilizes many different forms of contrast masks in printing the majority of his black-and-white images. “The information in the negative is not changed in any way, as might easily be done using digital techniques. In a sense, a contrast mask is akin to elaborate burning and dodging as well as local contrast control, all done easily and precisely using a pin-registration system in my enlarger.”

To make this process as accurate, easy and efficient as possible, Lynn designed the Precision Pin-registration Carrier System with the help of an engineer and a photographer friend. This system, along with his current publication, The Contrast Masking Kit, is available online at www.maskingkits. com.

Gas Pump (Alton, Utah, 1978)—Lynn found this gas pump near the road in the small town of Alton, Utah. He says, “The colors were pure and brilliant and the gas pump appeared as though it was proudly towering over the surrounding countryside appearing like some abandoned robot.” Lynn used a very low camera angle, less than a foot above the ground and pointed the wide-angle lens upward so that the rich colors and symmetrical form contrasted against the clear blue sky. He used 35mm Kodachrome 25; the very fine grain of this film enabled him to make rich prints as large as 40 inches high on Fujicolor Crystal Archive paper from a high-resolution transparency.

Lynn’s color work is all done on 4x5 or 35mm transparency Fujichrome Astia or Provia film. His color prints are made using a Lightjet printer on Fujicolor Crystal Archive type C paper. This process requires a file from a high-resolution scan of his transparency. Lynn optimizes color saturation, brightness, contrast and sharpness in Photoshop CS and applies a color profile supplied to him by the Lightjet operator. The process yields stunning print quality.

Even after 35 years of photography, Lynn Radeka still loves his work. He views each challenge as fresh as his first. “I love the challenges of photography. I love the successes in achieving an excellent print after struggling with it for hours, days or even years. I love the adventure of getting out in the wilds and wondering what is around the next bend in the road or trail. I love the brilliant sunrises and colorful sunsets, the exhilarating feeling of discovering a meaningful image that others pass by and aren’t even aware of. I still love looking through photography books, even old ones that I have examined a hundred times. Each adventure to Death Valley is as exciting as the first because the visual elements will never fail to challenge me.”

Lynn believes that his photography comes from within, a communication of sorts with the environment, “an aesthetic response to the visual elements that treat my eyes and senses to a play of light and form.” He considers black and white as revealing the soul of the subject.

Road at Sunset (Bisti Badlands, New Mexico, 1997)—Lynn made this vertical composition from a horizontal transparency. “This pastel sunset, looking east, is enhanced by the glowing gold of the foreground,” he says. “The dirt road leading endlessly into the distance gives this image a beckoning quality.” Lynn made this photograph with a 4x5 view camera mounted on a Bogen tripod and Kodak Ektachrome film.

Many of his original prints are in private and corporate collections throughout the world. “I am blessed by the fact that my income is generated solely from original print sales, posters, masking products and workshops. My Contrast Masking workshops are becoming increasingly popular to photographers who still cherish the unmatched eloquent prints that result from traditional black-and-white printing.”

Among the books that Lynn has photographed are Ghost Towns of the Old West, Historic Towns of America, Forts and Battlefields of the Old West, Legendary Towns of the Old West and Great American Hotels; he supervised the printing of the photographs for the book, Master of Light: Ansel Adams and His Influences.

Posters of his work can be found in several national parks throughout the American West. To view and purchase Lynn’s original prints and posters, please visit www.radeka photography.com. You’ll also find information on Lynn’s Contrast Masking workshops.