8 mm
I was first introduced to cine cameras in the 1970’s, Dad had a Halina Super 8 and was the families David Lean. He filmed us growing up, my sister showing off in front of the camera and my Mum shying away from it. He filmed our cricket matches in the garden and rounders on the beach, he filmed his own wedding.
8mm film was developed by the Eastman Kodak company and released in 1932, it was updated in 1965 with the simpler to use Super 8 mm. It was mostly killed off in the 1980’s with the invention of Video camcorders, but for a while it revolutionised home movies.
I still enjoy looking back on those films with a nostalgia I'll never feel for a Video or an MP4 and the cameras used have a styling and feel that I don't get from holding an iPhone or a camcorder.
8mm is an ongoing still life project exploring the 8 mm film cameras used by families and film makers all over the world.
Thats me on the swing and my sister showing off with the bubbles.
Soviet Watches
I came across an old cardboard box at a flea market in East London, inside I found 24 watches, no straps, non working and all Soviet-era Russian. The watches I found reminded me of old science fiction movies, the Чайка I thought resembled the EVA space pods in 2001: A Space Odyssey. I decided right there I wanted to photograph them.
There's a great history of Soviet-era wrist watches and the space race. A Sturmanskie (Штурманские in Cyrillic, which translates as 'Navigator') was the first time piece into space worn on the wrist of Yuri Gagarin and in 1963 the first woman into space Valentina Tereshkova flew also wearing a Sturmanskie. In 1965 Cosmonaut Alexi Leonov was the first person to leave his capsule and perform a space walk, wearing on his wrist the Stela (Стрела meaning 'Arrow'). The brand Vostok (Восток literally meaning 'East') is named after the Russian Vostok space program as were other Soviet watch brands, namely Poljot (Полёт meaning 'Flight') and Raketa (Paкéтa meaning 'Rocket').
