Vigo County Historical Society

Antique cameras share similarities with modern types

The mammoth portrait camera in the basement of the Vigo County Historical Museum was the property of photographer George Holloway and was used by Holloway in his work from 1901 until the early 1940s. Holloway open his first studio at 637 1/2 Wabash Ave. and in 1907 moved to 26 1/2 S. Seventh St.

As I walked around Holloway’s camera and examined it in some detail, I thought it was intriguing that the mechanics of this antique camera are essentially the same as today’s compact point-and-shoot cameras that dangle from wrists like charm bracelets or fit snugly into a pocket.

Although the size of the equipment has diminished and the procedure gotten easier, the photographic process and camera’s mechanisms have remained basically the same.

All cameras, regardless of size, depend upon a lens to focus light reflected from a subject onto the film. Modern lenses, if not self-focusing, easily sharpen the image with a slight twist of a focusing ring that surrounds the lends. In order to focus his lens, Holloway needed to shorten or lengthen the bellows, the accordion-pleated section that connects the wooden lens holder in the front of the camera and the wooden film holder/viewing screen in the rear.

Like large antique cameras, compact modern cameras have shutter mechanisms located behind the lens. Shutters are designed to open and close, allowing light into the camera to expose the film.

Holloway’s camera has a leaf shutter that expands and contracts much like the pupil of the eye. Contemporary cameras employ a blade shutter that opens and closes across the film like a horizontal blind.

Today, with a click of a button, we can calibrate our film and shutter speed for precise film exposure. In the early 1900s, the photographer needed to calculate the amount of time the shutter needed to be open to properly expose the film. He would then manually hold the shutter open with a cable release connected to the camera.

Now we simply drop a two-inch roll of film into our cameras, look through a viewfinder and click away capturing dozens of Kodak moments in a short period of time. Holloway was able to expose only one sheet of film at a time.

To view his subject and focus the camera, he first had to create a darkened environment by covering his head and the rear of the camera with a clumsy dark cloth. The scene he observed was upside down and reversed. After locking the focusing knobs, the film was placed in the camera and the photograph taken.

The photographer’s work was not finished, however. There were no one-hour photo labs where one could drop off film and later pick up finished photographs. He or an assistant would spend hours in the darkroom, developing the film and printing the photograph.

So the next time you pick up your finished photographs, take a moment to appreciate how easy it has become to save our special memories for sharing with family and friends.