Extolling the Virtues of Film and the Forgotten

A lot of people ask me: hey, Kari, you have nice cameras. Why are you pointing that piece of crap at me?

Oh, I am so glad you asked.

I do love my dig-it-all cameras. I do. I love the instant gratification of being able to see the effects of shutter speed changes, aperture changes, white-balance changes. Ooo. Gives me chills just thinking about it. So yeah, I really do love my digital friends, but...


Come on. This is nice. The color. The softness of the grain. The whole kaboodle just screams "lazy hot day at the fair with non-alcoholic beverages" to me. This was taken with an Ansco 1065 that someone very thoughtfully sent to me. My Ansco 1100 was stolen during the Great Robbery of 2008, in which most of my old, loved, crap cameras were taken. Lots of people chipped in to help me rebuild my obsessive collection of shitty cameras.


This was taken by my dear, departed Yashica MF-2.

A very kind and wonderful man from Florida thoughtfully sent me a care package of some old cameras he was giving away. The Ansco 1065 was among them. The funny part is, the robber probably didn't get away with more than ten bucks worth of cameras unless you count the...


Nikon N6006. Ughhhhh but we won't talk about that for now. Makes me have diarrhea just thinking about it.

The thing about shitty cameras is this: they're all the same and yet so different. They all pretty much need bright light, but what they do with that light is just fascinating. All the bends and smears and leaks. Depending on how the camera was used, you could really have some nice effects on your hands. And while I prefer 35mm cameras, I have a couple of Kodak Instamatics that only take 126 cartridges, which I guess I can modify to take 35mm film. But I also have Polaroid Land Cams and Kodak Disc-Cams and you JUST CAN'T FIND FILM FOR THAT SHIT ANYMORE. It drives me nuts.

The irony here is that I'm not a big fan of LOMO or toy cameras, like Holgas, Dianas, et cetera. They're okay. I had a Holga. It was fun. But for some reason, these crappy cameras that you can go out and find at any thrift store or flea market have this ineffable air of Americana to them. And the find - ahh, the thrill of finding a new old crappy camera! You don't know what it's going to do or how it's going to act until you get the roll processed. Magical. Truly.

If you don't believe me, go to Flickr's Trashcams group and look at the pictures people take with these things. It's wonderful.

Alright, that's enough of that.