Our photography consultant writes: The Brownie Hawkeye is one of a long line of Kodak cameras designed to get everyone taking pictures (on Kodak film, of course). It was inexpensive to make, being mostly a plastic box of air, and simple to use—there are no adjustments to make. In the ‘50s and ‘60s this was the kind of camera given to kids as their first chance at taking their own pictures. No doubt there are still tens of millions of shoeboxes under beds filled with snapshots of family, pets, the neighborhood and summer vacations, all produced by this camera and its close kin.

These are now a half-century old and more, and were not constructed with longevity in mind. One would never repair a Brownie; it would cost less to buy a new one. But their very simplicity means there’s not much to go wrong, and there are still many of these around in excellent working order.

Using it now, after long experience with much more sophisticated cameras, I find it terribly limiting. One cannot adjust focus or exposure; if the picture you want is outside its capability, you get nothing. It is also immensely liberating: you can concentrate on the picture, rather than the camera. I have on my (long) to-do list the “naïve project,” loading the Hawkeye with slow black-and-white film and making believe it’s my very first roll. What would I take pictures of, and how?

But forgetting is hard. As it is, I’ve explored what the camera can do, and surprised even very experienced photographers with the quality it can achieve. Some of the results are posted here, and larger versions will soon available in the new gallery feature on our website. If I were in a philosophical frame of mind, I would go into an essay exploring the relation between artists and their tools. . . but not this time.

I find it interesting that of the several cameras I have presented in posts on photo.net, a forum for dedicated professional and amateur photographers, the Hawkeye drew far and away the most responses. Some of them were along the lines of “that’s my first camera,” nostalgic in tone, but quite a few were fascinated by what could be done with a plastic box of air. A quick search turns up hundreds of Hawkeye postings on Instagram. The Hawkeye lives!

Here’s a picture of Fall along King Street in Alexandria, leaves on the cobblestones and a wooden table outside one of the shops.  I leave it to you to decide whether a black-and-white picture gives the proper mood, or whether I should have captured the leaves on color film.

The next one is also of Alexandria, a few blocks from the home of Five Colors (and thus a city you’ll see a lot of in our pages).  The Internet does not really do justice to the quality of the original 10×10-inch print; we plan on placing a larger version on the Gallery page.