Earlier this year I was sent a Kodak Brownie 127 camera in order to participate in an experimental vintage arts project called ‘Only the Sunny Hours’. At first I was unsure what to do and was perplexed by the crudeness of the camera. Using my first reel of film I attempted to take pictures in as totally free and uncontrived manner as I possibly could. I produced a small series of pictures which I called ‘Nothing in Particular’ to which I wrote this accompanying text in response to using it:
“How clumsy and odd this camera is, it feels so ancient and primitive, click and press and then wait a very long time to see what happens. Caught in the crossfire of wet vs. dry as a student, indeed caught in the crossfire of B&W versus colour many years before. A camera so reliant on sunny days, so hit and miss, what to take; a lifetime of mug shots and picturesque hum drum scenes. This time I take it’s bulky box outside into nowhere in particular and click at nothing in particular.”
The title of this photograph is ‘Nothing in Particular’#1 (bit of arm, fence, concrete floor, black shape). I suppose what I was doing was trying to create an accidental randomness in my pictures but I am wondering if a photograph can ever truly be completely free of involvement?
