Wound up with a somewhat early shoot in the Medical Center the other morning, and since there was nothing on the schedule immediately afterwards, I took the Zen Camera out for a walk in, inevitably, the Japanese Gardens at Hermann Park.
The “Zen Camera” is my name for one of my favorite experimental devices, a 6×12 pinhole camera from ZeroImage. It’s a very pretty camera to look at, beautiful teak and brass, and it positively glows in the light. It’s been an interesting experience to work with it, because unlike every other camera I’ve ever used, it doesn’t actually DO anything. The shutter is that little bit of wood on the front. Slide it open to start the exposure, slide it closed to end it. Film advance involves turning a knob. Viewfinder? Eh. It’s aimed kinda sorta about out there somewheres. I can usually get a reasonably decent take on where the center of the image is, plus or minus about ten degrees. The edges? Not my department.
With slow film in low light, it’s a meditative experience… you open the shutter, and then you and the camera take in the scene together. At some point, you reach up and close the shutter again, advance the film, and either shoot more or move on. But there are no cues at all from the camera that it has in fact recorded an image on film. I ran several rolls before my subconscious became willing to admit that yes, this IS a camera and yes, it DOES make photographs.
The downside is that my scanner doesn’t really handle 120 film very well as it is, especially since I’m working with some very old stock given to me by a colleague who was getting out of 120 entirely. It’s got a tendency to curl and pop, which makes the scans not very sharp. I’m ordering a new film carrier for it, which should help immensely, but it’ll be a few days or weeks before that’s up and running. So for now… it’s Art. It’ll be photography sometime soon.
Scanning more tonight or tomorrow.