"Red" Ribble made panoramic photos throughout Raleigh, Fayette, and Wyoming counties in southern West Virginia from the 1920's until the 50's. His photographs document the coal towns and the men who worked the coal mines.
In 1980 I made prints from Ribble's original negatives for the archives at the Cultural Center in Charleston, W.Va. and the West Virginia Collection at West Virginia University. Some of these prints were included in a travelling museum exhibition called the West Virginia Coal Life Project, and were later used as part of the states exhibit at the 1984 Worlds Fair in Knoxville, TN. This work led to my own career as a panoramic photographer.
Scanning and stitching these large photos is slow work, so I'll be adding photos to this page as I get them done. Keep checking back.
The camera Ribble used was a Kodak #8 Cirkut Outfit. "Outfit" means that this camera could make regular cut film photos as well as panoramics, although most were just used for panoramics. "#8" indicates the width of the film (8 inches). The length of the photo was determined by the degree of rotation and lens used. Ribbles photos run around 8"x48".
Film is pulled through a Cirkut camera in sync with the rotation of the camera. The photographer selects the correct ratio by using different pinion gears for the various lenses and shooting distances. Ribble generally used the 18" component of his Turner-Reich 10 1/2, 18, 24" triple convertible lens.
Most of Ribble's photos were either views of towns or businesses, or group photos.
Click on the photo for a larger version.
Click here to see some of my own panoramic photos.
This page last updated 5/17/02
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