Recording sight and sound
Some inventions change society; others don’t. Why?
Articles Tagged with Kodak Brownie
Getting back to it
The library
Tools shape the artist
A choice of camera is unexpectedly important
Our photographic consultant finds that the camera he uses can have an unsubtle effect on the pictures he takes.
The postures of photography
Conforming to the machine
Our photographer notices how a new technology forces our bodies into new positions.
How big is a picture?
Returning to the Brownie format
The photographs that came out of this Kodak Brownie camera from the 1930s may be the best size ever found.
Live long and prosper
What makes a device last for decades?
Our photographer routinely handles cameras from many different eras, using them to take pictures rather than keeping them for display. Those that work best are neither the youngest ones nor the most expensive. What design features make for a long life?
The artist and her tools
Our photographer accompanied a pair of artists on a picture-taking expedition this past weekend. As expected, he has observations to make about old and new technology. But he was also driven to more general musings about the relationship between artists, their visions and their tools.
The anti-selfie
Candid photography (for the expert)
We turn again to the theme of technology transforming society, or at least one part of it. With the invention of the 35mm still camera about a quarter of the way into the twentieth century, a whole area of life was suddenly opened up to photography. That was not the intention of the inventor, who was only looking for a lighter-weight way to take pictures himself.
But why pictures?
A photographer explores the ubiquity of images
Fooling around with a certain bit of relatively recent technology prompted our photographer to ask the question: why are there so many pictures? Our main way of capturing reality, that great manifold of experiences, is still the two-dimensional image. Being a scientist he then sought an answer (where a philosopher might instead have fallen into existential doubt). It’s not so hard to work out, really, but does highlight something important about our memories, and how technology is changing them.