Old Eyes, New World: A Photography Retrospective

By Sara Bremner, Curator

Side-by-side comparison of Trethewey House in the modern era taken with both an old and new camera.

When we look at old pictures, it’s easy to find them somewhat distant. A black and white image taken on an old film camera is worlds away from the fast, crisp, colourful images we all can easily take today. Photography has always been a skill, but the skill set and ease of use have changed remarkably since the early days of the medium.

I recently inherited an old Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera from my late Grandmother. Being a curator by trade and an amateur photographer by inclination, I thought it was a great opportunity for a fun experiment. I decided to try and photograph our modern world through that old lens and explore the difference technology makes in how pictures shape our perspectives.

My Grandma’s Brownie Hawkeye.

Photography didn’t begin as a hobby anyone could take up with the phone in their pocket. The barrier to entry was high, requiring expensive tools and equipment, and was largely the domain of experts and wealthy hobbyists. Most people encountered cameras only through studio portraits, and photographs were something you experienced through books, postcards, stereoscope cards, and newspapers.

That began to change in North America when the Eastman Kodak Company released the Brownie camera in 1900. A simple cardboard box with a lens and an internal assembly that held the film in place, the Brownie was affordable, easy to use, and users could simply have the Kodak company develop the film for them. For the first time, photography was something the masses could afford to participate in, and the concept caught on like wildfire. They were so successful, in fact, that they continued to be produced – with technological improvements – for over 80 years.

My Brownie Hawkeye was produced sometime between 1950 and 1961. It is a flash model, and it allowed people to take images in low light using single-use flash bulbs. It was one of the most popular Brownie models ever made. My grandmother was very proud of hers, which was purchased around the time she got married, and she used it to take the family snapshots we still have in our old photo album.

My Grandma and her family, taken with the Brownie Hawkeye in the mid-60s.

Film cameras may be out of fashion, but the technology is remarkably durable. Digital technology, for all it’s strengths, requires a computer that can interpret the image. Even in the past decade file formats and connection types have come and gone, and a camera that was usable 15 years ago might be increasingly incompatible with modern computers. The digital sensor requires an on-board computer, and there are many points in the process where obsolescence can get in the way.

Not so with old film cameras. So long as you have film and working parts, you can take pictures. You may have to track down speciality film, but it’s still possible to find camera shops that will send them in to be developed for you.

There is something about using old technology that makes you feel connected to people in the past. It’s the little things: figuring out how to put the film onto the camera spools, remembering to advance the film after each exposure, to holding the camera at your waist while you peer down at the prism on the top that serves as a viewfinder – through these actions, you rediscover forgotten skills and ways of doing things.

The results make those old photographs feel less distant. When you compare the images from a modern smartphone to the ones from your simple box camera, you see how the technology influences the result. The images might be hazy, or not quite in focus. You may end up with a few double exposures. The contents are the same, but the view is different, and through the process you learn to understand that old lens on the world a bit better.

Old and new, another angle.