Ever wondered how Domke bags came about? Today, we have the man himself, Jim Domke, sharing with us on how he has turned a camera bag that was initially made for reporters and photographers into this highly-esteemed bag which we know today!
Working as a full-time photojournalist and editor of the Sunday Page with the Philadelphia Inquirer back in the 70s, Domke wanted to create a bag that had to be rugged, practical and sturdy that could act as a 'base of operation' instead of having to run to and from his car to assemble the necessary equipment.
Learning from his struggles and gaining inspiration from people and places, Domke lets us in on how he has improved the bag over the years, transforming it into one that is easily accessible and convenient for everyone to use. Here is an excerpt from an article that he wrote, "Recollections by Jim Domke: Evolution of the Domke Bag", describing to us the process of refining this well-loved bag!
Recollections
by Jim Domke
Evolution of the Domke Bag
"The Domke bag got its start when the newspaper decided, after debating with the union, to pool cars to reporters and photographers. Rather than paying mileage, the union expected the company to give everyone a car. Instead, we had to share; the trunk was no longer the camera bag, we had to carry everything with us and as a newspaper photographer, you needed to have lenses and flash for a range of subjects from news to feature, sports or food, etc.
I never liked simply carrying one camera with one lens and it was nice to always have a camera with you. Always be ready for that unexpected moment, but you never knew whether the picture would need to be a wide-angle or telephoto, or whether you’d need a flash. So after lugging the Original F2 bag around at work, I wanted to see if I could design the smallest bag that would hold anything that fit in the F2. It had to be tall enough for a 200mm telephoto, or a strobe. Wide enough for a 35mm with lens attached so I could grab the camera quickly and get the photo. This is why I called it the “compact bag.”
This was around 1978, and it didn’t have any end pocket, because I was challenged to make the smallest bag. Many of the features on the Original Domke were carried over to the Compact, for example, the shoulder strap was the same and had to go entirely around the bag, spring clip on flap. And it was 100 percent cotton canvas. I put canvas tubes on the inside to hold long lens or strobe, but they could be collapsed if you wanted to put inside a 35mm camera with wide-angle lens and flash attached.
The slide-on pouch, F9, soon followed as an accessory to slide on the shoulder strap of the Compact Bag. Striving to make everything multi-functional, I added straps so The Pouch could also slide onto a belt or the side of the F3 compact, or on the F2 shoulder strap!
But it looked funny with a pouch on one side and the pouch wanted to fall over when it was set down on the car seat. The FX3, Super Compact , came in 1980 with end pocket on each side. The bag pretty much stayed the same until the 90’s when we offered another interior design with a 2-compartment padded insert instead of the canvas tubes.
In the early 80’s the fanny pack was introduced in outdoor shops, and gave me the idea for developing a waist bag for photographers. Seeing how camera bags were tools, to access the gear, not just a place to store things. I thought the “belt bag” would be handy for carrying extra film, filters and for the sports photographer to carry a wide-angle lens or flash to use at the end of the game. The banana-shaped fanny pack didn’t hold much equipment, I thought a box-shaped worked better and the bag needed to be in front, a belly bag.
I was designing bags for the working photographer and not simply trying to make copies of the same design in small, medium and large bags or offer bags in a range of price points. I figured the camera was the same size, the 70-200mm zoom stayed the same size, whether it was a big bag or a small bag. Working as a staff photographer on newspapers, I’d seen how almost every photographer liked to carry different gear. Some people liked to carry a lot, others less, some used zoom lens, etc. Domke bags were for the professional photojournalist who needed to get to the equipment quickly.
We’d used fishing bag, which were canvas, and some had copied military medic bags, instead of carrying the heavy leather boxes from camera makers. Canvas was thick enough to protect lenses and flexible enough to let the bag mold around the hip and collapse around the equipment so it didn’t bounce inside the bag.
We laughed at the amateur bags that had straps on the bottom for tripods. When shooting with a 300mm f/2.8 lens, press photographers needed a monopod.
But they didn’t need to carry it on the bottom of the bag where it would catch on doors and poke people. I created a Long Lens bag for the fast telephoto lenses to have a loop for monopod and since the lens was so heavy, the photographer needed to drop the lens in and out of the bag with a camera attached, so as not to put too much stress on the lens mount. The flap dropped down to let the hand grab the heavy lens instead of the camera body.
Accessories were added to help modify the basic bag and to make them more functional. Handle straps were accessories, because you’d miss a photo if you were carrying a bag in your hand. But a handle strap was handy when you wanted to lift the bag off your shoulder and put it inside the car, so we added the optional handle strap to clip onto the base of the shoulder strap so you didn’t need to worry about closing the main flap.
Trying to help find things and be organized led to designing a Filter File that would eliminate the need to put each filter in a separate case and take advantage of thin gelatin filters.
Sling bags were designed in 1979 to hold light stands and umbrellas for multiple lighting and I played with making the Little Bit Bigger F1 bag into a lighting bag for compact flash and batteries.
F-1x A Little Bit Bigger bag
But I always thought the F2 was as big a bag as anyone needed. It held too much, and I refused to make anything bigger. But some photographers contacted me and explained how they were going overseas and needed to carry more equipment on the plane. My solution was not to make a big bag, but the F8 Satchel. It would clip on the back and make the F2 bigger when traveling on the plane, and they could claim they had the one carry-on bag. Then, unclip it when you got to the location and not have to carry everything everywhere.
F8 Satchel
Most of the bag line was in place by 1985. What followed was perfecting the design with the rubber non-slip webbing and that led to adding the Gripper camera strap."
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Wow! Who would have thought that a little idea and inspiration from the workplace could lead to such a huge success! Interested to know more about Domke bags and how you can benefit from them? Click here to find out!
