About

All Your Walls, Melbourne, Victoria. 2005

I first discovered the fantastic world of plastic cameras on a trip to the USA during a few months break from studying. Prior to my travels, I had been thinking for quite a while about how excellent it would be if I could find a point and shoot camera that took medium format film. I was attracted to medium format film initially because of its square format and the size and quality of the negatives.

Back in late 2000 I was wandering about the gift shop inside the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego when I first discovered the Holga 120S. In its generic packaging the blue and black box didn’t give much away except the vital specification I had been dreaming of – this camera took medium format film and all you had to do was point and shoot! Actually it took “12 – 16 pictures in Color or Black & White with its Optical lens” (they are indeed the best kind)!

Testing it out later that day I was amazed by the sparkling quality and vibrant colors of my images and their transformation from regular holiday happy snap to vibrantly colored impression of the places I had visited. These images seemed to capture more than what was in front of the lens. The mood of the place, the atmosphere, was imprinted into the image too.

I used my new Holga for the rest of my travels noticing that its basic looking plain exterior disguised its awesome photographic power. I was able to take photographs undisturbed by the usual attention that traipsing about with a large Nikon or Pentax might attract in some poorer countries. The Holga looks cheap by everyone’s standards while a fancier camera screams tourist.

I came home from my travels inspired to use my Holga to create images as part of my Honors project. The images were based on the idea of the camera as a device for collecting moments in time, visual proof of an event having occurred – visual specimens to be catalogued later. In hindsight this is the motive behind many photographic works –to save the scene for contemplation at a later date.

From The Plastic Photo Show – The Book, Georgina Campbell. 2007