Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity
Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity by Michelle Bates
‘Plastic Cameras’ begins by introducing you to the history of plastic cameras, and how they’ve come to develop an almost cult status amongst photography students and fine-artists.
After the brief history lesson, there are portfolios for 23 different photographers who use plastic cameras on a regular basis. The images and artists displayed are well chosen and interesting to see.
The book then dives into the real meat and potatoes of what you need to know about plastic cameras. From this point onwards, the information is mostly centred towards Holgas, but the information is sometimes relevant to other cameras. The author starts off with the basics - film choice, loading/unloading of film etc, but then quickly moves on to more advanced topics such as modifying your Holga.
The final chapter concerns the array of options available to you once you’ve shot your roll of film. The author talks about both traditional darkroom based skills and modern Photoshop and digital imagery techniques.
Bates’s style of writing is concise and somewhat technical, yet I feel she explains everything clearly enough that anyone would be able to understand. They layout of the book is pleasant with colourful pages and plenty example images. Finally the book is rounded off with a comprehensive list of related Holga websites and publications.
‘Plastic Cameras’ offers a great deal of information for newcomers, but I still believe that even experienced Holga users may find this book interesting. I have been using Holgas for almost a year now and I run one of the most popular websites regarding Holgas. I found the book delightful and would recommend it to any plastic fanatic!
Buy the book at Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk
Tags: book review