Nov. 2002
President's
Message
Focus On...
Focus On...
Erik Kissa
When I entered high school my father showed me how to use a 4x5 view camera
and develop film. Later he gave me a medium format Ikonta. During WWII
the Soviet Union occupied Estonia and moved a half of a million people
into the small country. My parents were evicted and four Russian families
moved into our home.
In high school five of my classmates were arrested and shot. This was
not a time for photography.
After the war I graduated with
a chemistry degree from the University Karlsruhe in Germany. I did not
return to Estonia, but came to the United States and worked for Du Pont
until I retired 42 years later as a research
fellow. The only possession I had when I arrived in Wilmington was an
Exakta camera, the first of the 35mm SLR system cameras. The first few
years I did not have much time for photography. I enrolled in the University
of Delaware to earn my doctorate but continued to work at Du Pont. Having
two full time jobs
left me barely enough time for sleeping, but I found time to use my Exakta
and make prints. I operated the enlarger and my wife, Selma, did the developing.
When I joined The Delaware Photographic Society, the orientation was pictorial
photography. My first attempts to compete generated some negative comments,
such as "a picture postcard" and "a record shot".
I learned fast, however, and won the yearly competition in Class A and
then in the color slide Salon group.
One color print maker in the
Club, Karl Hartig, had made the PSA list of top ten exhibitors. This impressed
me as a great accomplishment and a tremendous challenge. I decided to
elevate my photographic skills and to enter international exhibitions.
A few years later I made the PSA list of top ten exhibitors in color slides.
This did not feel like an accomplishment though. I
realized that I had still much to learn. I continued to exhibit and have
now over 1800 international acceptances in North-America, Europe, Asia,
Australia,
and Africa. I have earned Stars in all PSA slide categories: 5 Stars and
4 Galaxy awards in Color slides, 4 Stars in Travel-Photography, three
Stars in
Nature, and two Stars in Photojournalism. Last year I received the EPSA
honors, said for excellence. However, I am not doing photography in order
to collect
stars and medals. The international exhibitions are an outlet for my images
and provide an incentive for an ongoing improvement of photographic techniques.
Photography is something more than a competition.
After my Exaktas, came several
Konicas and then the Nikon cameras. I have five camera bodies loaded with
different film. When I buy a new model, I
keep the old camera. This eliminates the mid roll rewind, labeling of
cartridges and confusion with ISO settings. If time permits, I use manual
controls and the spot meter in the camera. My favorite lens combo consists
of the 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 lens and the 80-200 f/2.8 lens with teleconverters.
When
traveling light I carry the 24mm f/2.8 or the 24-50mm f/3.3-4.5 zoom,
the 35-105mm f/3.5-4.5, and the 70-300mm f/4-5.6 zoom lens. For effortless
travel I
take only the 28-200mm zoom along. Other lenses I use are two macros (Micro-Nikkors),
the 17mm f/3.5 ultra wide angle, the 50mm f/1.8 or 1.4 for available
light, the 35mm f/2.0, and the 85mm f/1.8, the sharpest Nikkor I really
love.
I have now a digital darkroom and my enlargers are idle. Digital processing adds another dimension to photography and makes printing very easy.
A golden opportunity came when
the United Nations invited me to serve as a technical expert in Asia.
I had several three months long assignments in
India, China and South Korea. India is the photographer's paradise: beautiful
women in colorful saris, interesting architecture, the Taj Mahal, the
Golden Temple, and many others.
Five years ago, the University
in Tallinn, Estonia, invited me to give a minicourse in textile chemistry.
I used this opportunity to visit my old home. Although Estonia is now
free again, Russians are still living in the home of my parents. I wanted
to see the darkroom where my photography had started years ago. When I
opened the door I could not believe my eyes - in side the darkroom
was a potato bin! The Russian explained that in a dark place potatoes
keep longer. With the advance of digital photography some other darkrooms
may suffer
a similar fate.