Wednesday 22 July 2009

Camera Camaraderie: Treasury

Last week we went to the National Media Museum (NMM) in Bradford, which has inspired this treasury.

Sellers above , from left to right: Majesty Inc, Yaelfran, Japonicas, Ura Star House, CB78, Little Big Pants, Two Guitars, Moy Toys, Vivienne Strauss, Artsy, Sewn by Blythe, Roberta Grove.

Don't read the next paragraph if you would rather not read about morbid things. Just skip to the next paragraph after the photo of the television.

I had been to the museum before about 13 years ago, when it was still known as the National Photography, Film and Television Museum. The main thing I can remember from that first visit was a special exhibition of Victorian photographs of the recently deceased. It was very moving, although more than a little disturbing to me and others I was with, as this isn't a concept we're used to these days. Even though we hear about violence and death all the time through television, internet and the press, we aren't generally shown dead people because it's considered in bad taste to do so, therefore I found it quite surprising to see such a large collection of "death portraits" (often babies and children in their parents arms or in coffins, as if peacefully sleeping) from a time I perceived to have far more taboos about death than we have today. Seeing those photographs made me feel sad, not just because they commemorated the death rather than life of that person, but also because their family wanted to remember the moment of their death, and that they will keep that photograph to look at again.

Anyway, the NMM these days has a variety of interactive displays to entertain children and extensive collections of photographic and televisual equipment and memorabilia for all us geeks! I really enjoyed looking at vintage and antique camera designs, and I took quite a lot of pictures which you can see on my flickr stream: pictures of National Media Museum. I particularly liked the tiny Sony portable television which comes in it's very own cute little case! How cool is that? I really like it's minimal design, sleek but clunky at the same time. And I just happen to have a photograph of an advert for this exact model, which was in an early 1970s tourist guide to Japan.
Cheers for reading!
Joey :-)

1 comment:

  1. I love reading about morbid things! You must see (if you haven't already) "Wisconsin Death Trip" (available through Netflix) incredible documentary of a small WI town in the 1800s. Thank you so much for including my collage in your treasury!

    ReplyDelete

I love to read your comments, so please go right ahead! Thanks in advance for your message. :-)

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