The original innovator

"So, do you like what I've done with it?" I had to lie, "Yeah, it's great!"

As it was his last week, and my first, he'd tidied the office. But Mark was a bit of a 'kleptomaniac', and it appeared he hadn't been the first. After a couple of weeks I nervously started to open cupboards and look into boxes. Tim [Tim Frank of Frank & Dixon], the German graphic designer who was working there, had given up long ago and just shrugged it off as Mark's stuff.

 

There was 8mm film from the 50's and AV equipment that would have better suited a 1960's James Bond set. During one expedition into the junk I uncovered a transparent, airtight box that appeared to contain some camera equipment. Opening it up revealed a few mouldy filters, an early 90's Tamron zoom, a huge Russian Zenit with a mouldy Japanese lens and a very well worn, black Nikon FE with a 50 mm 1:1.4 lens attached. I asked Tim what he knew about them, but he hadn't seen them in the 5 years he'd been in the office and hadn't even heard Mark refer to the stash.

The Russian Zenit was useless, the Tamron zoom was uncool, but the Nikon FE was another story. It seemed to fire all right and the lens was clean. A quick trip was made to the bazaar for a roll of Kodak Gold 100 and by lunch we were sitting in the Mo-mo [dim sim] shop snapping photos of anything and everything.

When we got that first roll back we both knew that everything had changed. The image below is what did it. The colour, the amazingly short depth of field, and the texture, not to mention that it had been shot in the greasy darkness of the Mo-mo shop. It wasn't long before Tim had bought a silver FE2 off ebay and had it carried into Nepal by a friend from Australia, and I'd picked up a Nikkor 24 mm 1:2.8 lens from a dealer Kathmandu.

 

While we were still using a D100 for work, the FEs would always be around when we wanted to get creative. Maybe it was the feel of metal in our hands or the movement of the analogue light meter and clicking of dials, or maybe the finality of the mechanical snap. Whatever it was, there was something in it. I know that people say camera is irrelevant and image is everything, but something must be said for a camera that inspires images to be pushed further.

And I think I've just said it.