My New Camera Love
I’m in love with my new camera. She was pretty snazzy in her day- nice to look at, priced right, and beloved by many. The Kodak Folding Brownie, model 3A launched in 1904-1909 and featured a f/4 Bausch & Lomb lens, a ball bearing shutter and a Watson reflecting view finder that flips for portrait or landscape orientation.
Holding this camera feels like I am holding the history of photography in my hands. I opened it almost reverentially, thinking about the many photographs that must have been taken by this machine, and also thinking how a medium that was only for the few became attainable to the masses with Kodak cameras. And it is echoed in the way digital has changed photography recently. There are many who believe that with the advent of digital cameras came the ‘overnight’ photographer- someone who could now pull of a good photo without having to go through the expense and trial and error years of learning with film. The most obvious scapegoat of this line of thought would be the ‘Mom with a Camera’- or MWAC, a term used to describe a person who after taking copious amounts of baby photos after having kids, suddenly discovers her inner artist and decides to become a child photographer. There are other factors at work here, such as the need for a mother to be with her child and not forced back to work as she is now our capitalism driven culture. The opportunity to have flexible hours and a second income is more than a little attractive to today’s parent. But that’s a whole other novel that someday I might be tempted to write! In any case, established photographers who’ve spent hours and dollars becoming skilled in their craft naturally resent this implosion of fly-by-nights who are insistently chipping away at their market.
But it goes further than that, or at least that’s the way I see it. Photography is a visual medium, and a form of communication. Instead of being guarded and resisting others who are drawn to photography, how much more could we gain by being open to new views and ideas? Can their ever be too many writers, too many books, too many artists? Our world is constantly changing, evolving, and as new technologies arise, we will be faced with a decision: adapt or become irrelevant. And by that I in no way mean adapt to digital and give up film; film is very special, but that said it also does not give a photographer any more credibility. There were good and bad photogs back in the days of just film. The medium is not always the message. What I do mean is that we have to embrace the changes that are coming and find ways to make them positive developments (no pun intended) instead of feeling negative, dismissive, and threatened. Which is why I have no problem answering questions from anyone who is just getting into photography, and I’m not afraid of giving away my ‘trade secrets’! Those things are just tools that help me to create and compose my message. My eye, my imagination, my history, my context– these are the soul of my work, and can’t be copied. And it’s the same for every other person out there. We all borrow from each other, but no two photographers are the same.
There is room for us all, and those yet to come.
Tags: fun, gear, life, photography, stuff
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