Jason Hartog

Our Last News

Craftsmen

Craftsmen

I got my start at Fanshawe College in London.  One of my Professors was Andre Nufer, a commercial photographer who worked the “Hey Day” of large format commercial photography in Toronto.  Andre taught the Commercial course and from the first day I knew I was going to learn a lot.   I started assisting Andre in 94, we shot film using Hasselblad and Deardorff 11×14 and 8×10 cameras. The lights were old Normal flash packs, Classic Mole Richardson tungsten lights and honestly some of the coolest DIY lights you have ever seen. A true craftsman Andre schooled me the art of commercial photography, before computers gave us instant previews and infinite retouching possibilities. When colour balance was controlled by film selection and gelled lights and previews were done on 4×5 Polaroid and clip tests sent to the lab. Lighting, focus, composition had to be perfect when the image was taken or else a costly reshoot.  Digital certainly has changed our craft.

I went googling for some examples of his work and sadly couldn’t find anything.  I guess he would be considered pre internet.  I won’t soon forget the lessons I learned working under a true master of the craft.

Here is an image I shot when I was working for Andre, Shot 4×5 transparency and scanned using a old Leaf scanner.
commercial photographer

We’re Are Social