We are Time Machines
How we built a basic photographic camera in 10 days and froze the world around in time with our own lens
The concept of ‘time travel’ has always been an intriguing one for anyone, indeed. What if we could travel back or forth in time and space? How would we attempt to understand and define the context in that time and space? Whom would we propose, conceive, design and make the ‘artefacts’ for?
With this as the broad brief for the International Open Electives 2017 at National Institute of Design, we had set out to explore it in terms of how a moment in time is frozen through a camera. But before we could do that, we had to make a basic camera with cardboard, paper and a magnifying glass which would then be used to take pictures.
The workshop was conducted at NID Gandhinagar Campus and was headed by Hiro Sato — Associate Professor in Photography, Osaka University of Arts, Japan.
It was an amazing experience working and learning alongside a class of students from multiple disciplines and backgrounds. I shall narrate my journey and experience as it unfurled along the days.
#Day 1
After we were done introducing ourselves, Hiro explained to us the basic working of a camera by revisiting the physics of optics — how light makes things visible and how a lens uses light to form an image of an object. He handed out a magnifying glass and a piece of paper to each one of us and asked us to check it out by writing (more like burning)😬 our names on the paper using sunlight!
After we returned to the classroom, Hiro introduced us to the Sinar Camera — the different parts of it and how it functioned.
The main parts required to make the camera were identified as —
1. Camera body with bellow for focal length adjustment
2. Lens with aperture control
3. Film-holder with shutter
The first task was to make the bellow, as it was a crucial part as well as a relatively difficult one to get right.
In photography, a bellows is the accordion-like, pleated expandable part of a camera, usually a large or medium format camera, to allow the lens to be moved with respect to the focal plane for focusing.
Two kinds of bellows are commonly used on cameras — bag bellows are normally used with a lens of short focal length, and accordion bellows with a much longer range of extension.
We were making accordion bellows for our camera, which required getting comfortable with paper-folding techniques. Hiro had given us pieces of paper, marked with lines for the mountain-valley folds, to practise bellow-making.
The challenge was to get the folds correctly done, without letting the paper tear at the crease, as that would cause light leaks in the camera body. It was a task of great caution and care!
#Day 2–3
We kept practising the bellow making until we all had a satisfactorily stable structure.
The final bellow was made for a standard postcard frame size (4" x 6") using black matte paper. The creases were later sprayed with black paint to ensure light insulation. We had been provided with standard magnifying glasses that would serve as the lens for our camera. We calculated the focal length of our lenses and used it to roughly estimate the length of the bellow that would be required for the camera.
Hiro also explained to us the mechanism of the film holder in greater detail and how to incorporate the shutter in it. That is what we worked on the following day.
#Day 4–5
The lens would normally be fixed to one end of the bellow. However, for convenience, we tried to make a detachable arrangement for the lens holder. Some of us removed the lens from the magnifying glass holder and attached it to the piece of cardboard that would work as the lens holder.
Next up was the film holder. We started with one that would house a smaller film (photographic paper in this case) for trials. The parts were made from black cardboard and pasted using superglue. We also had to make a viewfinder (using butter paper) to test the image and adjust the camera focus before taking the final photograph.
We took a few photographs to test our camera. The captured photos were negatives, which were then developed into positives in the darkroom.
We wanted to try out an old photographic method — the wet collodion process. So, Hiro had prepared the collodion solution and left it over the weekend, so that it would be ready for use the next day we assembled.
#Day 6
Now that most of us had our basic camera set up, we got glass plates and set out for the lab to try out the wet collodion.
Due to some issue with the solution, the results were not satisfactory. Hence, we decided to stick with photo-paper for the rest of the workshop. We spent the rest of the day taking photographs and identifying problems with out camera setups.
#Day 7–8
We began working on assembling the complete setup of the camera. Some of us had to remake the bellow as it had suffered wear-n-tear by now, causing light leaks.
I made the full-frame film holders and viewfinder. A sliding mechanism was attached to the other end of the bellow, where the film holder/viewfinder could be slid into.
Now, we had to attach the entire setup to a base and use the camera. I had fixed the camera to an MDF board with the lens-end movable. It had slits separated by 2mm gaps for the lens-end to be fixed after the camera was focused while taking a photograph. The lens was secured with a flap of cardboard that served as the lens-cap.
Different methods were used by other people for the final camera setup. One of the interesting ones was one where the complete camera could be folded into a box and carried… Pretty cool!
#Day 9
We spent the day taking photographs of people, places and things in the campus. We tried to stick around the building so that we weren’t too far from the darkroom.
It took a number of trial and error before I got decent photographs. The exposure time is critical and had to be adjusted accordingly as the camera had a fixed aperture, irrespective of lighting conditions.
#Day 10
It was the day for final exhibition. We had assembled our cameras and photographs for display in the auditorium. It was a great experience seeing our work finally take great shape.
