The World In A Box

Before the days of the handheld consumer camera there was a bit of a fad in buying these little viewing boxes with a lens and mirror where you could basically walk around holding it out to see the image on a little 2D plane. It sounds counter-intuative to us but we couldn’t understand, as today cameras are part of every day society. I often choose to shoot square medium format with a waist level viewfinder and I have realised the similarities with this old toy.

• Medium Format because it is big, but not big enough to make it difficult to carry around easily.
• Square because my creative decision-making isn”t influenced by a rectangle with a bias given a particular orientation. I always feel I am trying to fit as much of a scene within the constraints of a rectangle, but with the square I’m more relaxed and my unconscious mind seems to work with my emotions to determine the composition.
• A Waist Level Viewfinder because photographic art to me is about seeing in another dimension. Just standing on my head is enough to please the part of me always wanting something new. So being able to preview the resulting film to scale in the palm of my hand allows me to look ahead and stop when the visual clicks with my feelings and the feelings I wish to convey.