Episode 11: You Press the Button - We Do the Rest

 

It’s our Box Camera Appreciation episode! And wow do we have some box camera appreciation for you!

First Eric and Vania tell everyone what they’ve been up to. Eric’s been wrestling with the 120 back for the Polaroid Automatic Land Cameras, while Vania’s been shooting in the water, getting older (but not old) and mentions a few new books.

Now delving into box cameras, we asked listeners to call in and let us know which ones they’ve recommend for friends. We got answers and Eric has shot most of them. Who knew?After the messages, Vania and Eric gave their own recommendations.

After a bit of discussion, we give a call to Jennifer Froula Weber (@jenniferfroulaweber on Instagram). We’ve talked with her before about her tintypes, but now we’re talking box cameras (and tin types – you’ll see).

She and we talk which boxes she likes best, why she shoots T-grain film in them, and why she’ll often choose them over her Hasselblad.

After the interview, we deep dive into a short history of the box camera. We begin by trying to figure out just what is a box camera, but quickly move on to the 1870s and the very first of these simple little cameras.

From there, we talk George Eastman’s early attempts at boxes, as well as the Boston Bulls Eye. It finally came together for Kodak when Frank Brownwell came up with his Brownie… and the many, many more that followed.

We also explored the many competitors to Kodak’s offerings, as well as how the designs changed from simple boxes to rocket ship dreams in colors of teal, mint and red.

While Vania talked about her new zine in the last episode, Eric talks his new issue in this. It’s Conspiracy of Cartographers Issue Seven, and it was all shot on the Imperial Savoy – a plastic 60s box camera.

We continue the zine talk with the second installment of our how-to-zine segment. Here, we discuss sequencing the photos, as well as layout and computer programs. The third and final will come next!

And speaking of zines, on this episode we also review Michael Tekel’s In Silvam Sciryuda. “When I moved to Nottingham UK, I didn’t know many places around here. Except for legendary Sherwood Forest. I wanted to see it. I went, I saw and I was not impressed at first. That’s how this zine project started – with the goal to capture the true soul of this place”.

And that about does it for the episode! Happy listening!