{"id":7313,"date":"2018-04-26T15:01:08","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T19:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=7313"},"modified":"2018-05-07T14:41:38","modified_gmt":"2018-05-07T18:41:38","slug":"historic-cameras-in-from-tintypes-to-tiffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=7313","title":{"rendered":"Historic Cameras in “From Tintypes to TIFFs”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cFrom Tintypes to TIFFs: Life Through the Lens\u201d has gotten excellent feedback from Fenwick Library patrons, and the favorite part of the exhibit for many seems to be the historic cameras that are on display throughout the timeline of photographic processes. In an era when most people simply use the cameras that are part of their smartphones, these vintage devices have particular appeal and charm. They are a reminder that photography once required significantly more time and effort than it does today, and they are often technological marvels and things of beauty.<\/p>\n

The cameras in the exhibit date from the mid-1800s to the mid-to-late 2000s, when digital photography had largely supplanted film but camera phones had not yet achieved their current ubiquity. The earliest piece of equipment is a large lens dating from the mid-19th century that belonged to renowned Civil War photographer Matthew Brady. It is only a small piece of the large apparatus that Brady or members of his Washington, D.C. studio would have used to capture portraits or battlefield scenes (exposure time in the 1860s took too long to capture actual images of battle).<\/p>\n

By the 1910s and 1920s, when the Kodak No. 2C Kodak Jr. on display in the third standing case was sold, cameras were significantly more portable and amateur photography had become a popular hobby.1\u00a0 Some degree of skill was required to operate the camera, however \u2013 the bellows lens is a bit more complicated than the simple point and shoot lenses of the two Kodak Brownie cameras, dating from the 1930s or 1940s and 1950s, that are on display in the same case. The front of the Brownie from the late 1930s-1940s has a design on the front that almost looks Art Deco-inspired, demonstrating that photographic equipment could be both decorative and functional. Likewise, the sleek design of the 1950s Brownie reflects the aesthetic of the early space age. Cameras were not just used to create art and document moments; they are art objects and reflections of their times.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Kodak No. 2C Kodak Jr. (left) and 1950s Kodak Brownie (right) on display outside of SCRC<\/p><\/div>\n

The cameras in the final case, dating from the 1970s through the early 2000s, show the increasing sophistication of camera equipment and the transition from film to digital photography. The Mamiya cameras are excellent examples of how the design of cameras changed their size and looks as new features and gadgets were added. The two Canon cameras show how rapidly photographic technology was progressing in the mid-1970s to the 1990s. As film became cheaper to purchase and develop, cameras were adapted to cater to increasingly skilled – yet still casual, photographers. Today, megapixels have largely replaced film for casual photographers, particularly those looking for a camera small enough to hide in a handbag or pocket.<\/p>\n

Make sure to catch \u201cFrom Tintypes to TIFFs\u201d in the next week and a half \u2013 the next SCRC exhibit celebrating the 50th anniversary of George Mason University\u2019s class of 1968 will be installed soon. Most of the cameras in the exhibit belong to library staff members and are not part of SCRC\u2019s permanent collections, so see them while you still can!<\/p>\n

Nick Welsh, SCRC\u2019s Records Management Specialist, contributed to this post.<\/em><\/p>\n

1. See Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler and Diane Vogt-O’Connor et. al., Photographs: Archival Care and Management <\/em>(Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2006), 45.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cFrom Tintypes to TIFFs: Life Through the Lens\u201d has gotten excellent feedback from Fenwick Library patrons, and the favorite part of the exhibit for many seems to be the historic cameras that are on display throughout the timeline of photographic processes. In an era when most people simply use the cameras that are part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,198],"tags":[607,22,57,574],"class_list":["post-7313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibits","category-photography-collections","tag-cameras","tag-exhibits","tag-photography","tag-tiff","post_format-post-format-image"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/file.jpeg?fit=4032%2C3024&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Ep5i-1TX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7226,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=7226","url_meta":{"origin":7313,"position":0},"title":"Stuck Out of Time","author":"admin","date":"February 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Photos, snapshots of a minute frame of time, often only a fraction of a second, provide a stark and seemingly frozen glance into the past. Special Collections Research Center's (SCRC) exhibit through April, From Tintypes to .TIFFs displays a variety of these tiny glimpses into the past in a multitude\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "exhibits"","block_context":{"text":"exhibits","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/nick2.jpg?fit=1080%2C607&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/nick2.jpg?fit=1080%2C607&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/nick2.jpg?fit=1080%2C607&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/nick2.jpg?fit=1080%2C607&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/nick2.jpg?fit=1080%2C607&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5515,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=5515","url_meta":{"origin":7313,"position":1},"title":"War Photography in “From Tintypes to .TIFFs” Exhibit","author":"admin","date":"March 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In addition to its timeline of photographic processes, the Special Collection Research Center (SCRC)\u2019s \u201cFrom Tintypes to .TIFFs: Life through the Lens\u201d exhibit explores particularly interesting photographic collections in our holdings. Photographs from one of the collections highlighted, the Military Assistance Group, Vietnam (MACV) Team 58 collection by 1st Lieutenant\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Digitization"","block_context":{"text":"Digitization","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=558"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/C0196B01P39_004.png?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/C0196B01P39_004.png?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/C0196B01P39_004.png?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/C0196B01P39_004.png?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/C0196B01P39_004.png?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6547,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=6547","url_meta":{"origin":7313,"position":2},"title":"Around the World in (Almost) Eighty Days","author":"admin","date":"May 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Summer is approaching and travel plans have been made! Special Collections Research Center holds many images and books that represent great travel destinations in the United States and around the world. That is why we have planned a new exhibit - \"Around the World in (Almost) Eighty Days: Traveling the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "exhibits"","block_context":{"text":"exhibits","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/TravelExhibit2017.px645.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/TravelExhibit2017.px645.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/TravelExhibit2017.px645.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3722,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=3722","url_meta":{"origin":7313,"position":3},"title":"George Mason University: A History","author":"Bob Vay","date":"November 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"George Mason University Libraries' Special Collections & Archives\u00a0(SC&A) and Digital Projects and Systems departments have created a new resource by which users can learn about the history of the university through narrative essays and digital objects, such as audio and video files, photographs, and\u00a0\u00a0textual documents. George Mason University: A History\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "exhibits"","block_context":{"text":"exhibits","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/RO1020BO1FO1O10.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4795,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=4795","url_meta":{"origin":7313,"position":4},"title":"Scenes from Behind the Wall: Images of East Germany, 1989-1990","author":"Bob Vay","date":"December 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In late December 1989 two young men, Page Chichester and Helmut Brinkmann, were drinking and watching a soccer match on television in the city of Bonn in what was then called West Germany.\u00a0 Brinkmann suddenly suggested that they tour East Germany, beginning the next day.\u00a0 The two stayed up all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photography collections"","block_context":{"text":"Photography collections","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=198"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photographers Page Chichester (left) and Helmut Brinkmann (right) at the Berlin Wall during their eight-day trip to East Germany. 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