This camera of old resides in a window of the Photo Supply shop on Main Street. To some it might be junk. To others, an element to add character for interior design. To me, it is a mystery.
When I see a vintage camera like this, I wonder to myself what moments it has captured. Where has it been? Who has it become acquainted with? How many smiles has it been responsible for?
Photography can accomplish so much in the way of preserving memories, yet the device used to obtain them often finds itself cast aside once its task is complete. It is, after all, the memories that are valuable (however they might be gotten). Old cameras are just one of those “if these walls could talk” items to me and I imagine them to be full of incredible stories.
In looking at the accompanying photo, I marvel at how primitive it looks. I wonder if the same will be true a hundred years from now. Will people then look back at our pictures and wonder at the time we live in? Will it hold any nostalgia or charm for them? If cameras still exist, will they still inspire wonder? I hope that, in the future, people still lose themselves in a photo, that they lose themselves in a memory. Even if that memory is not their own.