2020 – The year of the box camera, part 1.

Just before the world turned mental I joined a small group of 20 or so photographers who committed to exposing a roll of film a month (can be more) through a box camera. It didn’t have to be a different box camera each time but as I had a number of these things sitting around and hardly ever used what a perfect opportunity to see what creative possibilities were out there.

Being a huge toy camera and pinhole fan and often looking for the “less than perfect” image it was a long overdue exercise to give these some love.

Neil Piper is running the group called Project Box Camera and you can follow along here.

https://projectboxcamera.wordpress.com/

March was the first month for uploading to the project shared folder and for this I broke out my Agfa Synchro Box – probably the coolest named box camera I have.

Cool name it might have but it has some very basic features, single shutter speed and aperture but it does have a cable release socket and a neat build in yellow filter. Here are some pictures from a day in the fens and of the camera.

April – with the lockdown looming we went for a walk by the Great Ouse in Huntingdon and this time I took a newly acquired Coronet Ambassador camera.

This camera also has a built in filter but this time its green and mine is very grubby, greasy! I didn’t clean it as I was curious as to what results I would get.

The Ambassador sports a snazzy front plate, single shutter speed, built in green filter and a time mode. No cable release but some neat metal covers for the two viewfinders.

I made darkroom lith prints for this month. The greasy filter adds a certain glow and softness to the pictures that I quite like. SO I wont clean it for now.

May – was an odd month as we celebrated VE day under lockdown. What better way than to record it on a vintage box camera. Out came my art deco baby brownie 127 camera and I wandered around our village asking if I could make portraits of people and send them prints. They all agreed and all got prints.