With Michael Pritchard

In this talk Dr Michael Pritchard will look at the history and development of the camera from its origins in the early 1880s to the advent of digital cameras from the 1990s, with a particular emphasis on those made by Eastman Kodak Co from 1888 and Kodak Ltd in the United Kingdom. Many of those Kodak cameras were landmarks in the history of the camera and amateur photography such as the Brownie and Instamatic cameras, but Kodak also made cameras for professional photographers and for specialist purposes. It is perhaps for its amateur cameras – that most of us or our families will have used – and these came in many shapes, sizes and colours, and influenced by industrial designers such as Kenneth Grange. The talk will be heavily illustrated and will also explore how the cameras were sold to snapshotters and amateurs, and how Kodak targeted specific markets such as women and children. It will rekindle memories of past cameras and the types of pictures that we used to take with them, and you are encouraged to bring your own Kodak and other cameras along for comment!

About the speaker:

Michael is a former Christie’s camera and photography specialist and more recently headed up the Royal Photographic Society. He is a photographic historian of long-standing and was involved in the transfer of the Kodak Historical Collection from Kodak to the British Library and Kodak’s Research library to De Montfort University. As a schoolboy he regularly cycled from home in Watford to visit the Kodak Museum in Harrow. His most recent book is A History of Photography in 50 Cameras (Bloomsbury).