I just heard, late last night, that Marty Forscher died last Wednesday. That name won't mean anything to some, but right now photographers who have been around for a while will be going "Awwww...."
Similarly, some people won't see much in the shot at the head of this post. To others it will look deeply familiar—down to the scratches, so typical of a zillion 'Roid test shots that got louped and then tossed on the studio floor and stepped on and whatnot....
This is actually the first-ever test shot made with a two-shots-on-one sheet fiber-optic Pro Back. (Photographers had complained about "wasting" so much of the area of a Polaroid sheet with just one 35mm test shot. So Marty fixed it.)
Marty Forscher presided for years over a place in New York City just down the street from the offices of LIFE magazine called Professional Camera Repair—otherwise—widely—known as "Marty Forscher's." He was nominally a camera repairman, but he was also an inventor (most notably of the Polaroid back for 35mm cameras, first marketed as the Forscher Pro Back and later licensed to NPC); a sort of unofficial support staff for generations of independent photographers, from lordly Richard Avedon on down to the lowliest wet-behind-the-ears student; and, mainly, a wizard who could do anything—fix anything, create whatever you envisioned, attach any one thing to any other thing even if they weren't intended to go together, make things work differently from the way they were intended to work, and on and on.
He famously called the Nikon F "a hockey puck that could take pictures."
He was a gadfly who prodded the camera manufacturers to making better, stronger, more resilient, more reliable, and more easily repairable gear. They didn't listen to everything he said, but they listened.
He believed in the mission of photography and its best practices, its ability to witness, to draw attention to injustice and affect social change.
When I was coming up in photography, Marty Forscher stories were part of the background radiation. It seemed like everybody had one. People who never set foot inside Professional Camera Repair knew who he was and had heard some of the stories or a few of his bon mots.
Rod Sainty remembers an address Marty made to an annual gathering of pro news photographers some time around 1978–80. "Though acknowledging the increased features that cameras had which enabled amateurs to make photos more easily," Rod says, "he was dismayed at the increasing frailty of cameras with which pros had to work. I remember his opening statement that he had been appointed 'keeper of the flame' of cameras past, and a later one that 'camera manufacturers should decide whether they are in the tool business or in the toy business.'"
There's a brief obituary at PDN. He retired in 1987, and Professional Camera Repair closed its doors, a victim of rising rents and declining business, in 2001.
He was 87.
Mike
(Thanks to Rod Sainty and Noah Schwartz)
UPDATE: Noah has posted a page of photographs, articles, and related ephemera on Photo.net. Thanks to Rod for mentioning this in the comments.
UPDATE #2 (October 10th): There is now an obituary in The New York Times, written by Margalit Fox, in which TOP is mentioned, and Marshall Arbitman (see below) is quoted (!).
Featured Comment by Jim: "Professional Camera Repair helped keep a lot of my 'hockey pucks' of various kinds working over the years. There didn't seem to be any destruction I could heap upon my cameras as a pro that Marty couldn't fix. I don't know if the 'good old days' were really as good as I remember, but Marty sure made working hard with cameras a lot easier."
Featured Comment by Carl Leonardi: "Marty will be missed—an icon of the photographic film era. The magic was, you believed he could repair anything and make it work again. He took the fear out of camera abuse. I probably met him in the '60s when I brought [LIFE magazine photographer Bill] Vandivert's Leicas and Nikons in for their annual cleaning. Yes it was like going to the local shoe cobbler to repair what was left of an old pair of shoes. No matter what shape your camera was in—'Take it to Marty, he'll fix it' was the word heard round the world."
Featured Comment by Chris V: "As a graduate student in the '60s, I had the privilege of taking my mentor's fell-off-the-tripod Hasselblad to Marty's. I knew I was in a special world. But when another customer, a kindly older lady, asked me if I was familiar with Cornell Capa, I was confused. My sister had been a 'Kappa' (kappa-kappa-gamma) at Cornell, but that didn't seem to fit the conversation at hand. The lady assured me that I would soon know what she was talking about. I think if that Hasselblad had managed to fall off the tripod a couple more times, the Professional Camera Repair environment might well have turned me into more than just an amateur photographer. And I'd love to know who that lady was."
Featured Comment by Marshall Arbitman: "I walked into his shop in, musta been about 1982. Around my neck was a Pentax MX. On my face was a pained expression. Without batting an eye, this impish, graying, stoop-shouldered guy looks at my face, looks at the camera and says: 'Lemme guess. The diodes flicker in the finder and jump all over the place when you meter, and Pentax says they've never hearda such a thing happening. Whyncha just come here first?' He was right. He later told me, lest I think him some sort of camera mystic, that his last MX through the door was just a few days earlier, my camera had no dents, scratches, missing pieces or saltwater residue, and my face looked just like the last guy's. So, QED. Made sense. Still makes sense. But after hearing Marty Forscher stories for 25 years, I don't buy it for a minute."
Featured Comment by Arthur Kramer: "I loved Marty. He was a skier and an athlete and I was sure he would outlive me by 20 years or so. Well so geht es. I remember all the guys who hung out with Marty. A great group. Of course back then there was only one camera, the Leica M3, but the Nikon was creeping up on it. Sleep well old friend. You have many friends who will miss you and remember you."
(Ed. Note: Art Kramer, of whom my son is an honorary nephew, was the optical columnist for Modern Photography magazine for many years. He was the pioneer of laboratory lens tests in consumer photography magazines. —Mike)
A consummate craftsman with a "can do" attitude, Mr. Forscher will be fondly remembered by many of us as more than just the guy who fixed our cameras.
Posted by: Dave Reichert | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 01:54 AM
As a long-time '60s Nikon F user, from the Old World side of the pond, there were two pro-photo people who fascinated me when they were mentioned in the US magazines I regularly bought... Marty Forscher and Jay Maisel. Now you have shown a rejected Polaroid of the former (Forscher), he will stay in my mind even more because my enduring image of the latter (Maisel) was of him almost completely buried in a mountain of several thousand discarded 'Chromes.
Posted by: Ed Buziak | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 01:59 AM
I was raised in the (as they call it) Wonderplastik era. I'd love to own a "tool" of a camera.
Posted by: Stephen | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 02:13 AM
Never knew the man, but have clear memories of walking into Professional Camera Repair all of twenty back in the day. In the late seventies the place looked more like a fifties newspaper office than anything remotely high tech. Small little work stations with seemingly antiquated equipment, and cameras in all states of disrepair and disassembly being examined, fitted and tested by all shapes and manner of men versed in the inner secrets that our cameras revealed only to them.
A religious experience for sure, prayers answered upon return, wrapped in a clear plastic bag with a rubber band and an invoice.
Posted by: Stan B. | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 03:00 AM
The reason is simple: cameras are now a computer with a lens. The camera industry has become a semi-conductor business.
That's reality. I, for one, will never go back to film, no matter how much I miss my mechanical Pentax.
That's why there isn't anyone taking Marty's place. And that's why cameras today cannot be customized.
The relentless march of technology.
Posted by: misha | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 07:13 AM
If you prefer tools to toys, these are great times. Everyone else is throwing out the tools, so you can buy them for almost nothing.
Posted by: David Long | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 08:30 AM
Marty's first job was with the National Geographic.
The Big Cheese (Gilbert Grossvner?) could never remember to extend the lens on his Leica before making a picture, and gave the camera to Marty to make something which would always remind him to extend it.
Instead, Marty fitted a collar around the lens barrel so it couldn't be collapsed at all.
They fired him on the spot.
So he opened his own shop.
Posted by: Bill Mitchell | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 08:50 AM
I remember the shop well, though I think I was only there once or twice before Forscher had retired from Professional Camera Repair. As I recall he was still involved in a company called NPC that made Polaroid backs, one of which I owned for my Canon New F-1. He was a legend.
Manhattan was once home to many fine craftspeople at the top of their trade, like Forscher, most ultimately pushed out by high commercial rents. I still play my Giardinelli custom trombone mouthpiece, made in a shop not far from Professional Camera Repair. Mr. Giardinelli eventually retired and sold the name, I gather, and now the company runs a large mail-order business from a warehouse upstate, and several of the machinists who worked for him run their own custom brass mouthpiece shops around the northeast U.S. I have copper pots and pans tinned by Atlantic Retinning, which operated in Chelsea for something like a century before high rents forced them to relocate to New Jersey. I used to love to go down there and see the warehouse with stacks of copperware piled everywhere on shelves, tables, and floors. Chuck McAlexander, one of the best brass instrument technicians, is still holding out in Chelsea with The Brasslab, though last I checked, he was sharing space with a woman who repairs instrument cases.
Posted by: David A. Goldfarb | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 09:07 AM
Spent A LOT of time at Pro Camera Repair during my years as a fledgling assistant in NYC & spoke with Marty many times. Every photographer I worked for had their cameras repaired/modified there. It's one of those places like many in the modern day that has simply disappeared from the earth. I can't even imagine any single person trying to repair a Nikon D3 (they are probably repaired by robots). I remember wondering what famous photographer I would run into every time I visited & staring with lust in my eyes as Marty explained to them how to work the various modifications he had made to their Nikon Fs or their 100000000000mm F 0.002 lenses.
Posted by: Ben Russell | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 09:13 AM
I will remember Marty with awe and reverence, as I played with and used his Polaroid backed Exakta, which I had originally bought at Ken Hansen's shop on 35th Street up on the 10th Floor.
It was a time of wonderful cameras and exciting lenses, used and new. Photographers studied Art back then not which camera was coming out at what Expo.
I'm just glad I was born early enough to have experienced it and tell younger artist about it. Gone are those days but some of us are hear to relate our stories and pass the torches.
~m
Posted by: mitchell | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 09:17 AM
Stephen, the 'tool' cameras are still available! You can still purchase a used classic metal, manual, mechancial camera from the era. A Nilon F2 or a Canon Ftb or an Olympus OM-1 and a host of other fine iron are available with a standard 50mm lens for under $100 (sometimes) plus the cost of a CLA, or clean lube and adjust by a shop. Even if you wind up with $300 in it it will be well worth it just for the look through the viewfinder and the tactile experience.
Posted by: john robison | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 11:11 AM
I went "awww" not "ohhh" (and I don't awww too easily) even though Marty could not fix my Leica M when I needed a now for now fix as I was only in town for the day (I would not be back to modern civilization for a year and so was a bit pressed). His reputation as a miracle worker with cameras had reached some very distant corners of the earth.
I did enjoy the ride in the elevator that had a driver though.
I really like that quote of his. Indeed tools or toys.
Posted by: Quad | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 11:46 AM
I bought one of those NPC Polaroid backs for my FM2N, to the tune of about five or six-hundred bucks, and never used the dang thing. I'm not even sure if I can get film for it anymore. It wasn't a very forward-looking purchase on my part since the digital era was just dawning.
Anyway, Marty seems like he was a great guy and a photographer's true friend. Rest in peace.
Posted by: Player | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 12:03 PM
I remember him. Along with Modernage, 47th Street Photo, and Lee Witkin. All gone, I guess. But what the hell. We're still here.
Posted by: g | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 12:05 PM
'camera manufacturers should decide whether they are in the tool business or in the toy business.'"
This statement is never more true then it is today.
Seems like all my heroes are passing on.
Hoover
Posted by: Dennis Hoover | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 12:16 PM
I met Mr. Forscher in the mid 80s, when I took my 15mm Nikkor to PCR for a custom job. (Replacing the built-in filters with an 80A and 85B.) I remember him as a very kind and gracious man. He gave me his business card and told me to call him in a week to see if my lens was ready. I still have his card. I still have the lens, too; haven't used it in, gosh, a dozen years, but is sits on a bookshelf. I'll look at it a bit differently now after Marty's passing.
Posted by: Rob Atkins | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 12:23 PM
On 2 or 3 occasions I saw Marty Forscher take a jammed up camera from a customer, hold it up to his eye, say "So whats seems to be the matter with this?" and hand a working camera back to the surprised customer.
Professional Camera Repair also fixed a couple military cameras for me that they had to machine parts from scratch to fix.
I miss him, Ken Hanson's, the Camera Barn ocean of weird used cameras, and The Light Gallery
Posted by: hugh crawford | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 01:55 PM
I had several of his Pro-Backs and I did use them quite a bit all through the heyday of the Annual Report and Kodachrome era (late 80s). The made it possible to bullshit the AD or designer into signing off on almost anything, since they couldn't really evaluate the soft contact-sized Polaroid very closely. That was glorious and brilliant in itself ;-)
Posted by: Frank P. | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 02:09 PM
I remember hearing oncethat Mr. Forscher invented the "quick advancelever' that replaced the film advance knob on early Leicas?
Posted by: david blankenhorn | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 05:10 PM
Noah Schwartz has posted some interesting examples of adaptations done by Marty Forscher and his team, as well as a 1989 PDN article, on a photo.net gallery page (below). There's even a Diana lens mounted to what looks like a Mamiya RB67 back. The Kodak acknowledgement in the PDN page was nice.
http://photo.net/photodb/folder.tcl?folder_id=935497
Posted by: Rod S. | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 05:54 PM
With a name like Marty Forscher I suppose he had antecedents who may have come over from Central Europe. In German "Forscher" means: searcher, student, explorer, investigator, researcher, scientist.
Seems he was a bit of all of the above.
Nomen ist Omen. Some times.
Posted by: Mike O'Donoghue | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 07:30 PM
Mike,
It is a fortunate person who is publicly remembered by a rememberer as eloquent as you.
Lovely post.
Robin
Posted by: Robin Dreyer | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 07:52 PM
Rest in peace, Mr. Forscher. And thank you for fixing my Nikon FM in 1983.
Posted by: Mani Sitaraman | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 08:02 PM
Sadly, Marty is gone along with the thriving days of an era. Photography has changed from a time when photographers made photographs with tools that required the operator to supply the brain.
The tools themselves were wonders of mechanical engineering, truly fascinating. Pick up any old Nikon F or F2, Leica M2-6 +MP or Hasselblad and you will know what I'm talking about. The wind on lever, gears spinning, springs tightening, cogs setting, it's all so marvelously seductive a feeling. And then the release of all that energy into a satisfying series of sounds and sensations that gave you all the instant feedback you could ever want or need.
Photography, before the cameras were smarter than the operators, required skill and a devotion to making what is a difficult thing, the fixing of a properly exposed and focussed image on a sliver of sensitized emulsion, look easy, was a romantic time. Photographers were reasonably well paid and respected for their experience and ability to bring home the shots under any circumstance.
Alas, Marty's time has gone as we toss aside last years model for this years promise. Upgrade always is the song we sing, keeping the companies that provide us with our imaging computers flush with cash so they can provide us with the next big thing in the not too distant future.
I'm glad I'm old enough to have known Marty, even if only as an over the counter customer. Marty was a hero and savior for many of us who entrusted our precious instruments to his care. He made us whole and kept us in business. Thank you Marty.
Posted by: Mike Peters | Sunday, 04 October 2009 at 09:58 PM
Although I was in NYC once in the 70s, and lived in Boston 81-85 (I never quite figured out how close things were on the east coast, so I never really took advantage of it), I never did get to Professional Camera Repair, though I knew the name all along, and Marty Forscher's name. It appeared regularly in articles in Popular Photography, apart from anything else. I hadn't realized the business had closed down years ago, though. Now I'm doubly saddened, for that as well as for Marty.
This is a great time for "tools instead of toys", all right. The reason nearly everybody is shooting digital cameras is because they are better tools for what most people are shooting. Some few people are shooting film because it's better for what they shoot, and a few more are shooting film for other reasons (such as "they like it"; a fine reason, so long as it doesn't get conflated with other claims).
Posted by: David Dyer-Bennet | Monday, 05 October 2009 at 11:38 AM
Never mind that he was a mechanical wizard; more important, Marty was a mensch.
Posted by: Julio Mitchel | Monday, 05 October 2009 at 11:28 PM
I used to got to his shop my first Nikon f2 had a meter that kept shorting out every 2 months or so, Upon the 3 rd trip he grabbed my F 2 yelled at the last guy to repair it opened it up found a short fixed it in 5 minutes never had a problem again. He loved photography and took care of a generation or two of photographers. Some people are great because they are great at something. Marty was a great man for being great at something and his desire to help others
Posted by: david Seelig | Tuesday, 06 October 2009 at 01:27 AM
Sometimes, just sometimes, you hope there is such a thing as reincarnation...
Posted by: old canuck | Wednesday, 07 October 2009 at 07:58 AM
The Times seems to have picked up the Pentax story! http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/nyregion/11forscher.html?ref=arts
Posted by: Will | Saturday, 10 October 2009 at 11:31 PM
I linked over to this site from the NY Times obit.
I knew Marty. Mostly as the father of my school days' friends, his sons, Gregg and Paul.
I enjoyed a lot of happiness in those days with those friends and with that family. We skied together, played together, went to movies, rode bikes, and just hung out at their Briarcliff Manor home.
My condolences for their loss of Marty, father, husband, and mensch, for sure.
Posted by: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1133400284 | Sunday, 11 October 2009 at 10:14 AM
I first wondered into Professional Camera Repair in the late 60's-a college student and part time pro photographer. Over the years I became a client and friends with Marty. He kept my Nikons, Leicas and Hasselblads in repair, Modified a Pentax fisheye and Leitz Telyt 400mm. for my Nikons. There was a time early in my career that a Nikon F Motor Drive had quit working. I was heading off on assignment-he kept the shop open past closing time and I walked out the door with a needed piece of equipment in working order.
In the 80's doing annual report work I purchased one of the first Forscher Polaroid Backs for my Nikon F2. It allowed you to preview shots on location that took the guesswork out of complex lighting setups. For a number of year after Marty 'retired' he would be at the Polaroid booth at the PDN Photo Expo and greet his old customers. It was a stop I looked forward to each year. The event happening later this month will be a little sadder this year knowing Marty won't be there physically. I'm sure I'm not alone in knowing his presence will be felt throughout the Javits Center.
Posted by: Barry Tenin | Sunday, 11 October 2009 at 10:08 PM
Marty was a wonderful, inventive mensch, one of the truly good people I have met in my life. He is greatly missed not only by the thousands of photographers he helped and whose bacon he routinely saved, but also by his friends in the industry. I had the privilege of working with him and Jim Stolper of NPC for almost twenty years on behalf of Polaroid; he was a truly good person, and I am proud to say I considered him a friend.
Posted by: Drew Webb | Sunday, 11 October 2009 at 10:17 PM
Unfortunately, I can't share any memories of Marty. Wish I could.
But I wanted to know if any of the commenters know a good camera repairman in NYC? I have a Canonet GIII and a Nikon F with uncooperative meters and Pho-Tec and Chrysler won't touch 'em.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by: plannerben | Monday, 12 October 2009 at 01:44 PM
Remember going into his shop in 1970 or thereabouts and seeing an index card on the bulletin board offering a camera for sale. The person who was selling the camera was a Diane Arbus.
Posted by: bill | Friday, 23 October 2009 at 04:24 PM