Herbert Burkholz

My parents emmigrated from Nurenberg Germany to America in 1925. I was born in Milwaukee Wisconsin in 1927. My introduction to photography came during my college years when a neighbor offered my his job as a photographer in a local resort hotel. He instructed me in the use of the Speed Graphic camera and how black and white prints were made in the dark room. The year was 1948 and all was still black and white at that time. Upon graduation from college in 1950 I became a partner in a photo-finishing business in our home town. That lasted about two years and during that time I was married and started a construction business. That business lasted for about 15 years and changed to a retail swimming pool business. Throughout my business life I provided photographic needs and produced advertising pieces both for my own business and also for the industry that I was a part of. Upon retirement my wife and I moved to Florida where we built a new home complete with a good sized darkroom and a large working area for me to pursue my fine art black and white photography. I developed a system that enabled me to make prints up to 60 inches. I have shown my work in many fine art shows, in local business places and in several galleries. I no longer use the 8 x 10 camera as I find that 4 x 5, with the wonderful films available today, make the larger format unnecessary. That's my opinion but it would take much space to explain why I feel that way. I do use color to illustrate articles that I occasionally have published in magazines. For these I use the 6 x 9 and the 35mm formats. My first love though is in authentic black and white large format photography and the challenge of making a singing print in the darkroom.