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Interior of Curaçao’s Congregation Mikvé Israel-Emanuel, oldest synagogue in the Americas. Photographed in 1975 as part of LRH’s photo shoot of the island’s synagogues used to produce Curaçao’s “Synagogue Guidebook,“ still in use today.

      With Ron’s passage to the Caribbean in 1974, commissioned work continued, most notably on behalf of Curaçao’s tourist board in the Lesser Antilles where, as an LRH note from mid-February 1975 informs us, “The subjects included loot from a sunken city, slums, industry, native markets, you name it. Enough for two or three articles.” To which we might further cite a local newspaper reporting, “Mr. Hubbard with his professional acuteness gets the shots he wants, one after another–a production rate of more than 7,000 photographs since he first started taking photographs here.” Then too, and even more to the point: among those 7,000 photographs were the LRH shots still featured in today’s brochures of the Mikvé Israel–Emanuel Synagogue (reputed to be the New World’s oldest) and other island landmarks of the Jewish community.

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Curaçao, 1975, photograph by L. Ron Hubbard.

      Upon Ron’s return to the United States in 1975, and his training of photographers to serve Scientology organizations, came what may well stand as the culminating LRH contribution to the field. All effectively commenced with a truly incisive examination of just what comprised the perfect shot–including every conceivable aesthetic and technical factor–literally from shutter click to final print. What then followed was his absolutely fundamental “Camera Stable Data,” or the LRH delineation of every vital step necessary to ensure a successful shot. If the statement seems in any way reminiscent of other instructional programs, it is not. For the fact is, one would be hard pressed to find anything resembling the LRH checklisted summation of precisely how to elevate the everyday snapshot to a truly quality photograph. In emphasis of the statement, consider Ron’s photographer training program. Reflective of a greater LRH lesson–that an artist who has not mastered his equipment cannot freely create–utterly novice students were armed with the simplest of point-and-shoot cameras. Thus freed from intricacies of shutter speeds and apertures, and so forced to concentrate solely upon that Camera Stable Data, students were routinely recognizing, preconceiving and composing photographs that genuinely talked–and all in a matter of weeks. While as for the advanced students, or those who had mastered the Camera Stable Data, there was the LRH emphasis of drilling all equipment for an effortless mastery.

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Multiple exposure, 1965, photograph by L. Ron Hubbard.

      Also from these years and also in the name of forwarding the photographic arts in general, came the LRH development of truly benchmark film and equipment testing procedures. Again, if the matter seems in any way routine, it is not. For given a manufacturer’s specification of film speeds are frequently unreliable, even the fully professional photographer will find himself hard pressed in achieving perfect exposure. In reply, and quite uniquely, came LRH methods of testing those speeds to yield what is virtually a perfect negative. Similarly, and likewise noting discrepancies between actual performance and manufacturer claims, are LRH tests for camera, meters and lenses.


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