{"id":13711,"date":"2019-09-25T07:07:46","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T11:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=13711"},"modified":"2019-09-25T07:09:05","modified_gmt":"2019-09-25T11:09:05","slug":"toy-camera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/09\/25\/toy-camera\/","title":{"rendered":"Toy Camera Fest Celebrates Photography At Its Most Beautifully Basic"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Somerville Toy Camera Fest<\/a> showcases photography at its most beautifully basic\u2014photos made with simple (often plastic) cameras with little (if any) controls or automation. Some are pinhole cameras\u2014a container with a film inside and a tiny hole poked in the side to let light, and the world, in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lens and a shutter and the film. It\u2019s not filled with electronics. There\u2019s no electronics probably,\u201d says Lee Kilpatrick, who has organized the festival with Susan Berstler, Bruce Myren and Bonnie Bee. \u201cThe controls are so little that you don\u2019t have to obsess over getting it exactly right because you can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

The seventh annual festival of low-fi photography offers three exhibitions<\/a>\u00a0in Somerville drawn from an open call to photographers all over the place. The photos are on view at the Nave Gallery, 155 Powderhouse Boulevard, from Sept. 7 to Oct. 5; at Brickbottom Gallery,1 Fitchburg St., from Sept. 5 to Oct. 5; and at Washington St. Art, 321 Washington St., from Sept. 8 to 28.<\/p>\n

In conjunction with these shows, festival juror Gordon Stettinius of Richmons, Virginia, is presenting a solo exhibition of his work at Griffin Museum of Photography, 67 Shore Road, Winchester, from Sept. 5 to Oct. 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis stuff is kind of the opposite of what much photography is today, a lot of popular photography,\u201d Kilpatrick says. \u201cIt\u2019s not perfect. It\u2019s not clean. But sometimes it has more soul than stuff that\u2019s perfect. It\u2019s a little democratizing too. Anyone can get a camera and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Valerie<\/a>
Valerie Rizzo, “Fire and Smoke.” In the Somerville Toy Camera Festival exhibition at Washington St. Art.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Christopher<\/a>
Christopher Seid, “Mushrooms.” In the Somerville Toy Camera Festival exhibition at Nave Gallery, Sept. 13, 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Somerville<\/a>
Somerville Toy Camera Festival exhibition at Washington St. Art, Sept. 13, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Silke<\/a>
Silke Hase, “Sister KrisTall Mighty Keeping Her Countenance.” In the Somerville Toy Camera Festival exhibition at Washington St. Art.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Philip<\/a>
Philip Arnold, “Tango in Plaza Dorrego.” In the Somerville Toy Camera Festival exhibition at Nave Gallery, Sept. 13, 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Philip<\/a>
Philip Arnold, “Policia, Buenos Aires.” In the Somerville Toy Camera Festival exhibition at Nave Gallery, Sept. 13, 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bob<\/a>
Bob Gervais “Janitzio, Mexico.” In the Somerville Toy Camera Festival exhibition at Nave Gallery, Sept. 13, 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Somerville<\/a>
Somerville Toy Camera Festival exhibition at Nave Gallery, Sept. 13, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Somerville Toy Camera Fest showcases photography at its most beautifully basic\u2014photos made with simple (often plastic) cameras with little (if any) controls or automation. Some are pinhole cameras\u2014a container with a film inside and a tiny hole poked in the side to let light, and the world, in. \u201cIt\u2019s a lens and a shutter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13497,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[615,608,26,616,190],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13711"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13711"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13721,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13711\/revisions\/13721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}