Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Home Made Camera


This is an astounding story! I went to an exhibit today, of photographs taken with home-made cameras. That description does not begin to describe how amazing the photographs are, and what incredible work went into the making of this camera and a number of others. As usual, I don't think I was supposed to photograph these objects, so I am intentionally omitting the museum and the name of the photographer. The photographic prints, taken years ago, and literally hundreds of cameras were stored in an outside shed, and are all the worse for wear - they are covered in dust, and some mold. The photographs were intentionally made almost as an "anti-photography" statement, the photographer refusing to use any modern tools or processes, and the photographs show that. Sorry for being so obscure. You would be amazed if you could see these instruments in person, however.

3 comments:

ken schwarz said...

This blog brings back a memory from 1973 or maybe 1974 when you duck taped a lens to one end of a shoe box and put a pin hole at the other end with a flap to control light exposure onto a negative inside the box.
I was very impressed with your demonstration. Regretfully, my limited brain capacity can't recall what photograph(s) resulted from your homemade camera but I will always remember that shoe box camera.

ken schwarz said...

Editorial correction: camera was put together with
"duct" tape not "duck" tape.

Ken Spencer said...

Hi Jas: There was no lens on that box - it was a "pinhole camera" and the "lens" was a piece of aluminum foil with a tiny hole made from a sewing needle. I forgot about playing with that thing. Pinhole cameras have everything in focus from inches away to infinity, although the images are not as sharp as they would be if a lens was used.