Confessions
of a Toy Plastic
Fanatic
In 1992 I
befriended Joe, a photographer from Philadelphia who showed me his
magical toy
camera prints, color images with rainbow flare marks.
I was so enthusiastic that he gave me old
Banner and Revue cameras from art school days, no longer wanted because
he
couldn’t figure out how to modify them to get a bulb setting. To this day, the Banner remains my favorite,
a camera you have to be crazy to love.
When I see an interesting scene, I’m curious to discover how the
Banner
“sees” it. Waking up in the
morning, myopic and astigmatic without my glasses, I see a lot like the
Banner. It has no aperture, shutter or
distance settings and every seam leaks light.
I’ve
devised a way of working with exposure, even though the shutter speed
varies
depending on how fast you move your trigger finger away, and the
aperture also
remains forever a mystery. I know its
favorite EV on my hand held meter and I’m always ready to hold a red
and maybe
a green filter over the lens if the day is too bright for TRI-X. That, of course, produces the added feature
of exaggerated skewed tonal values, which just enhances the inebriated
viewpoint. Another priceless feature is the “bite mark” signature—the
particular shape of the ragged edge of the bottom of each negative. I almost died once when a well-meaning
engineer friend went inside the camera and tried to smooth off the
jagged
plastic that makes the film stumble and get mutilated there.
I’ve sat
on park benches in foreign cities as people stared and pointed, both of
my arms
trapped fumbling in a sweaty black bag, trying to unload a loose roll
of 120
film from the camera, rubber band it and quickly sneak it into a safe
carrying
bag, and good luck at the airport x-ray!
Never crazy about too
much “reality” in my photography, documentary, literal
depictions of detail don’t generally add to my enjoyment of a
photograph. I’m after the emotional
quality, and only
those details, tonal values and perspectives that contribute to that
aspect. With the toy plastic
cameras I can photograph everyday familiar objects in brilliant back
lighting,
for example, and with its “special” optics and the lack of lens
coating, I get
a, shall we say, “spiritual quality”, only the essential true Buddha
nature of
the subject. Basically, the light enters,
bounces around and kind of dies somewhere near the film, resulting in
negatives
only a mother could love. I’ve heard of
Leicas having contrasty lenses—this lens is unlike a Leica, and I think
of the
camera as my un-Leica. Joe told
me how to cook the daylights out of TRI-X in straight D76 to have a
fighting
chance at ever making a print. Printing
from the Banner is an unbelievable experience.
All I can say is you have to want the print very very badly, and
you might
get just one after 2+ hours – forget about ever duplicating it!
In 1997 I
showed work in my first toy camera show.
After the reception came the raffle we were all waiting for. We patiently watched people win dinners
for 2, and even very nice photographic prizes, but in the end when they
called
out the winner of a real Diana in the vintage antique box with a yellow
screw-on
filter, and little carrying case, I was stunned to
realize
it was me! There were ~ 80 deeply
passionate toy plastic fanatics who would give anything to be in my
shoes. The mob came after me to my car,
like I was
the Pied Piper as I made my guilty escape.
There’s a great kinship with other insane toy plastic
photographers. For some of us who truly
love photography,
independent of any possibility of financial gain, the Diana and her
sisters take
us back to the innocence of our first encounters with the medium, the
magnetic
mesmerizing pull of it, the childlike joy of playfulness, curiosity,
hope,
disappointment, and magic.
The
images here were made with the Banner, Revue, and Diana.
Toy plastic cameras use 120 medium format roll film, make square
negatives, were made in China
in the 50's or 60's, have uncoated plastic lenses, springs instead of
shutters, and very crude settings.
The Holga toy camera is currently manufactured, available from
Freestyle Photography. Its vision
is generally a bit more sober than most vintage versions and it
features a
flash shoe and choice of negative size.
Diane
Kaye