“… A native New Yorker, he has roamed through America constantly since earning a BA in Art from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, in 1965, already obsessed with “the great underlying theme of my work: the utopian vision of America contrasted with the dystopian one”.”

Commentary
I recommend learning photography with a view camera, analog or digital, if that is an option as it is a very different, more contemplative experience than can be had with most smaller format cameras.
With the ongoing depletion of available 4″x5″ and 8″x10″ sheet film stock, professional processing labs and top-quality analog printing services, it may be wise to consider digital options if contemplating photographing on location with field and portable view cameras.
The gallery and list below contain a number of digital alternatives that accept mirrorless cameras and digital backs of various brands via adapters.
The medium and large format film colour photography of Joel Sternfeld, Joel Meyerowitz and other North American photographers crucially influenced my own ways of seeing and working as much as that of small, hand camera photographers.
Notable colour photographers of the former persuasion worth checking out include these:
- Diane Cook and Len Jenshel
- Edward Burtynsky
- Joel Meyerowitz
- Joel Sternfeld
- Mitch Epstein
- Stephen Shore
Contemporary digital technical and view cameras
Links
- Alpa of Switzerland
- arca-shop
- Cambo
- Chroma – The unique, 4×5 technical camera – Kickstarter campaign
- Horseman
- Linhof
- Rod Klukas Arca-Swiss & Large Format Photography
- Silvestri
- Sinar
- The Guardian – The drifter: Joel Sternfeld on his sly glimpses of wild America – seen from the endless highway
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- Arca-Swiss F-Metric C 4×5 Field Camera – B&H
- Cambo ACTUS View Camera – B&H – versions for Canon EF, Fujifilm GFX, Fujifilm X, Nikon F and Sony E camera bodies.
- Cambo ACTUS-DB2 View Camera Body – B&H – view camera for digital backs.
- Cambo Technical Cameras – B&H
- Cambo ACTUS-XL-35 View Camera – B&H – view camera for 35mm sensor format cameras, more for studio than location use.
- Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II Tilt-Shift Lens – B&H
- Fujifilm GFX 50S Medium Format Mirrorless Camera (Body Only) – B&H – remarkable effort from Fujifilm with the next version of this camera to be the GFX-100S, and with a rangefinder or rangefinder-style alternative apparently also coming sometime soon in the form of the GFX-50R.
- Horseman VCC PRO View Camera Converter for Canon – B&H
- Linhof 4×5 Master Technika 3000 Metal Field Camera – B&H
- Linhof 4×5 Master Technika “Classic” Rangefinder Metal Field Camera – B&H – this really is the classic folding portable view camera for use in the hand or on a stand aka tripod, with rangefinder and optical viewfinder.
- Linhof Techno Digital Field Camera (Body Only) – B&H
- Silvestri Bicam Professional Modular Camera Body – B&H
- Toyo-View 45AX 4 x 5″ Field Camera – B&H
- Toyo-View 8×10 810MII Folding Metal Field Camera – B&H
- Wista Field-45DX Field Camera (Ebony) – B&H – one of my favourite cameras during the analog era.
- Wista Field-45DX Field Camera (Rosewood) – B&H