A Manifesto
At this moment in history, the technical aspects of photography are receiving unprecedented attention. New cameras of amazing sophistication are breathlessly analyzed by photo magazines and websites. Photographers are draining their bank accounts attempting to keep up with equipment purchases.
But a few photographers are reacting against this conspicuous consumption and rampant technophilia.
The essence of photography - to place a particular frame around the world at a particular moment - remains unchanged. So some choose to pursue this act in the rawest possible way: by using the most obsolete, flawed, and low-tech cameras available. Most were created as economy snapshot cameras, some even as toys. Many are decades old. All share very limited controls, and optics of questionable quality; sometimes a mere pinhole.
The toy-camera aesthetic turns its back on sterile technical perfection. Instead it celebrates the
messy unpredictability and dreamlike imagery that only a truly rotten camera can provide.
The A3C3
Ann Arbor, 2007