Boxing clever

Boxing clever

Digital imaging and modern lenses have freed us from so many constraints that we used to face as photographers.

With a simple box camera, slow film, a single shutter speed and an uncoated meniscus lens, the basic advice was to take pictures only on a sunny day, with the sun over your shoulder.

That was a genuinely simple message: the limitations of the technology made it really easy to do, providing you stuck to the rules.

View of the top right corner of the camera: can you see - faintly - an image of a pillar and a garden wall? Even more complicated to use because it reverses the image right to left...



My first camera was a Kodak Box Brownie (a Six 20 Model F, I discover on researching a bit). It was made from metal, had close-up and yellow filter pull-outs, and would take a flashgun. It had a very Fifties design, with cream leatherette all over the body, and a stylish (or maybe it’s better to say styled) front panel. I think that the brilliant viewfinders may have been the only such things I’ve met that anywhere near worked well.

A vast amount of thought and development had gone into making a camera that was genuinely simple to use, thoroughly robust, and gave worthwhile quality. Big negatives gave contact prints that were decently sharp: a pristine example, complete with box and instructions will cost you getting on for £100: £15 gets you one that looks as if it’s been kept in a plumber’s toolbag for fifty years.

I currently own a rather older version (a Brownie 2), made mainly from wood and card, and black all over. It’s much simpler, but harder to use, because instead of a plastic knob, there’s a key to wind the film on, the viewfinders are tiny, and – here’s the killer – you need to use the shutter differently on alternate images. Push down for one image: pull back up for the next. The model F has a natty plastic button and there’s a sliding switch to lock it to prevent accidental exposures. The one plus the older model has is that the shutter is in front of the lens, protecting it from dust and damage.



‘You push the button, we do the rest’ was the old Kodak slogan. You could say the same of an iPad: and they are more completely ubiquitous than even the Brownie box camera, but the sheer lack of limitations tends to mean that many users attempt the impossible.

What’s changed? A regimented approach, the idea that there were rules that you needed to follow may have helped Brownie owners to succeed. Maybe my view of the success rate is through rose-tinted spectacles. But I do wonder if too many of us have bought the idea that we are photographically invincible, and don’t need to bother learning how to use our kit.

Maybe today’s the time to find out about that button you don’t understand. Go on – look it up!