"Strange hobby, taking pictures that look like bad analogue pictures! Why are you using a cheap little camera when you have a powerful full-frame digital camera?"







When I began taken pictures in the early seventies, I used my parents’ Kodak Instamatic. Just like the Hipstamatic, you were never quite sure how the result would look. In my first picture of two girls holding a drawing - made on Queens Day - the girls are not in the centre of the frame. In the summer of 1973 I began a mini-project using the same camera. I photographed farms in my village which were built before 1900. Again it was very hard to get the buildings centred, but in the end I managed.



I have been addicted to the square frame ever since. For most of the photographs taken with a normal camera, I can isolate the essence of the photo by cropping a square. I cherish my 6x6 cameras. Unfortunately I can’t afford a digital back for the Hasselblad. Otherwise it would be my everyday camera.



Then came the Hipstamatic app for the iPhone. Once again there’s the battle with the machine. You never know exactly what will come out. How much extra green does the app add to a photo again? How much is ‘eaten’ up by the frame the app creates? Just like the Instamatic in the past, you have to be careful and think ahead. If you don’t Hipstamatic will do nothing for you.



So what’s the answer to the question? Well, it takes me back to the time when I mastered a tool which would record my view of the world. When I realised there’s more to a photograph than pressing a button. You have to be choosy, as if your roll of film only had 12 exposures.