blakley
stairwell
In 1982 Bruce Dorbowski and his brother Winston began production of a U.S.-made people’s camera—an inexpensive plastic unit with an equally plastic lens. It was inspired by a cheap-ass Russian camera that was a low-tech response to a high-tech industry which had sucked much of the spontaneity out photography. The Dorbowskis called it the Hipstamatic 100. And hey, it only cost about eight bucks.
Production of the Hipstamatic 100 stopped a little over a year later because, c’mon…the camera was only worth about eight bucks. Only 150 or so were sold, total. They could probably sell more now, because at some eccentric moment after digital imagery became the dominant mode of photography, cheap-ass analog cameras became unexpectedly popular. They re-introduced a cheerful uncertainty to the process, a predictable randomness in which you knew you wouldn’t know what the result would be.
And then on the seventh day, Apple created the JesusPhone, a multi-media-enabled device that walked on wireless water and took photos at the same time. It was inevitable that an app would be invented for this expensive high-tech contraption to recreate the low-tech feel of cheap-ass cameras. And lo, the Hipstamatic was reborn in digital form with all its foreseeable uncertainty.
Is this a gimmick? Absolutely. Yes, without a doubt, completely, it’s a gimmick. But it’s a gimmick that seems to inspire folks to photograph things they wouldn’t ordinarily photograph, and to do it in ways they wouldn’t ordinarily do, and to experiment with ideas they wouldn’t ordinarily consider. And hey, it only costs about two bucks.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, greg fallis and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
