Purma Cameras - Raymond Loewy?

The Purma Special

There have been a handful of great designers who have put their names to cameras. Of all the designers that I wish had designed a camera, Raymond Loewy the father of American industrial design (he was actually French), would be at the top of my list. He did in fact design a consumer camera for Ansco, which although nice, doesn't have the style of, say, his $100, 000 pencil sharpener.

Raymond Loewy's name has always added value to a product, sometimes his name was used by advertisers without him knowing. The newspaper advert below states "Beautiful streamlined design by Raymond Loewy". I wish it were true but it's a myth dreamed up to sell a product.

The art deco design is by two Englishmen. That wonderful shape was created by the brilliant poster artist Tom Purves. The job of making it work was cleverly done by Alfred Croger Mayo. And, if I may say so, Raymond Loewy couldn't have done it better. The name PURMA comes from the founders names, PURves and MAyo.

Let me introduce you to the Purma Special!

The Purma is the work of great minds. The modernist design wouldn't have looked out of place in Fritz Langs Metropolis. It's made of black bakelite, that's grooved like a 78rpm disc. The lever to cock the shutter and the indent for the shutter button have the same profiles as 1930's airliners, in fact the shape of the body is borrowed from a pair of wings.

There is no design compromise on this camera, knobs and buttons would have ruined those modernist lines and a lens is un-thinkable. So all the controls are either blended in, or like the shutter, recessed. The most troublesome bit, the lens is hidden (except for when you need to take a photograph) behind a discreet bakelite lens cap. On removing the cap, the lens telescopes out.
The shutter was the brainchild (it's patented), of Alfred Croger Mayo, it is ingenious if odd. The shutter speed control, which selects the three speeds (slow, medium and fast), is invisible. To change speed, you turn the camera clockwise to the vertical position for fast, turn it 180 degrees for medium and tun it horizontal for slow (it helps if you're a bendy cartoon character). Somewhere inside the camera gravity does it's job and the speeds do indeed change, you can hear a metallic noise! There is no visible indication, you have to have faith. Because the photos are square, it makes no difference if the camera is held vertical or horizontal, clever eh!
Aperture and focusing are fixed, no worries there.

All this design, but what do the photos look like? Well I have to be honest and tell you that I haven't used my Purma to take a photo, but I will one day. The 127 film is readily available, in the UK you can buy it from AG Photographic and in the US from The Frugal Photographer. There's an active user group on Flickr, some of whom make stunning photographs with the old Purma.

I'm sorry Mister Loewy didn't have a hand in the design of this camera. If you want one of his original designs, he did design the Lucky Strike logo which is still available and affordable, but sadly not this camera.

Dennis Hopper,actor, photographer and icon, dies at 74

Paul Newman by Dennis Hopper

That rogue talent Dennis Hopper has died aged 74. Famous for Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now and Blue Velvet, but I'll remember him fondly as a thoughtful photographer.

From the sublime to the ridiculous

How does one follow the Fab Four?
Tomorrow night is the Eurovision Song Contest, live from Oslo, Norway (how can I get this blog back onto photography?). It's a time when the Europeans enter a period of weirdness.

It's been on the TV, every year since 1956 and I believe that a lot of Europeans do take the contest very seriously. You hear of tactical block voting where countries vote only to express their opinion on another country's foreign policy. An example would be Bosnia & Herzegovina giving the Serbian song "Nil Poi", and visa versa.

The United Kingdom doesn't have a strong record in the event despite trying hard to win. This is probably due to the fact that we've ruffled a few European feathers over the years by going to war with most of the other countries taking part. But the Eurovision Song Contest is still a big event for us because we celebrate the campness of the contest and pretend not to take it seriously. The host in the UK (anchorman), is the very funny and camp Graham Norton who before last years event in Moscow said "I can't wait to get to Moscow. With a combination of cheap vodka and a language barrier what could possibly go wrong?".

The build up started weeks ago when the song was chosen and since then we've been drip fed with Eurovision news and re-runs on a regular basis. Tomorrow night pubs throughout the UK will broadcast the contest on large screens, people will dress up, place bets and get drunk.

So for everyone who has never seen the event, the video below is an example of what you've missed. This is Sir Cliff Richard (yes he was knighted), performing the UK's 1973 entry in the contest, he came second!

The photograph I wish I'd taken

Yes, I wish I had taken this photograph. I was about 18 miles away at the time, I expect I was watching Elsie Tanner in black and white, eating cheap sweets, drinking sweet tea. I used to make the journey and cross the Mersey on a regular basis, I cycled once and crossed on the ferry but I had no inkling that these lads were doing anything interesting.

The man with the glass of milk stout, where is he now? And who took this mystery photo?

Ilford Advocate Camera

My 1949 Ilford Advocate

I called in at the Redbridge Museum today and what did I see but an Ilford Avocate camera. I'm pleased this camera has attained museum status because I personally think it's one of the most beautiful cameras ever made.

Ilford, if you don't know is in Essex but it's also a Borough of London. The photographic company took it's name from the borough, then they moved to Cheshire. The Advocate was made for Ilford by a precision engineering company, Kennedy Instruments.

The quality of these cameras is second to none. The body is cast silicon alloy and finished in beautiful ivory enamel. I can't be sure but the bright metalwork looks like nickel silver. All the internals are machined and the lens is a stunning 35mm Dalmeyer, that produces wonderful contrasty images.

Seeing the camera in a museum has shamed me into using it. I've loaded my Advocate with film for my trip to Newmarket later this week. I'm off to photograph race horses being exercised, another early start. I'll add some images from the Advocate soon.

Justine Reyes - Still Life Photographs

Still life with banana, purse and change by Justine Reyes

I've always had a thing for Dutch and Flemish still lifes and who wouldn't! The lighting, the detail and the philosophical meanings. These are paintings that can keep me occupied for hours. In fact, we used to have a large reproduction of a Dutch flower painting on the inside of our toilet door for many years. And now I'm fortunate enough to live within a few miles of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, which houses my favourite collection of Dutch and Flemish still lifes and flower paintings.

The taking of a still life photograph is a difficult task to do, without bumping into cliches. And to actually find a beautiful still life photograph is very rare indeed. The photographs below are by Justine Reyes who has produced some glorious images and created a collection she calls "Vanitas".

But there's more to this artist than still lifes, she has many strings to her bow and I recommend you have a good look around her web site, I loved the "Home, away from home" series, go and see for yourselves.

Still life with cup and melon

Still life with still life book and figs

Still life with tea set, picture frame and cake

Still life with chicken game and flowers

Still life with buttons and rind

Still life with pomegranate and birds

The unique sound of the Seagull

Seagull 35mm Camera

I'm fortunate enough to have visited many countries in my life and unless I had a specific photograph to capture, I've usually chosen to travel without a camera. I always thought, and still do, that if I wanted a picture I could buy a disposable camera or, and this is more exciting and part of the travel experience, I could find a pawnbroker and buy something interesting (or I could just send a postcard to myself).

It was a pawnbroker in Kerala, southern India who supplied me with my Seagull camera on Christmas Eve 1998. The man who owned the shop was a good salesman, he told me that this was a serious camera and it's previous owner was an Australian who traded the camera for a shruti box. I remember feeling a little cheated at the time because a shruti box was high on my 'must buy in Inda' list!

Having flown with the Seagull I feel I owe a debt to the Australian who now owns the shruti box, because the Seagull is a beaut! The Seagull was made in Shanghai, China, many moons ago. It weighs 3 grams short of a kilo, made of chromed brass, steel, leather and glass, and I believe it would survive a nuclear attack. Add a suitable strap and you feel tooled up, this camera can be used to fend off villians and thieves.

It was inspired by an early Minolta camera, it's very simple to use and produces wonderful images. Wear the Seagull around your neck and you're back in the 1960's. It doesn't have an exposure meter, you have to use a hand-held device, or guess. I've always used the guess method to get the exposures and I've rarely been disapointed but there are still accurate instructions inside most film boxes, either way you'll get a picture.

The lens is perfectly sharp and contrasty. the bonus is the depth of field preview lever that's just in the right place to easily check the blur as you compose. Finally, the Seagull has a reasuring ring (like a bell), that resonates after the shutter has been fired.

An album of my Seagull photographs