PANORAMAS OF THE 21st CENTURY TAKEN WITH A CAMERA OF THE 19th CENTURY

I began this project with a Panoram-Kodak No.4 camera, a cylindrical projection camera. It was built in the last years of the 19th century; its patent dates from 1894.

The camera was a gift from Doctor Berthier, a camera collector. The camera lens rotates on its nodal point, projecting the image on the film, guided by a cylindrical back. The speed and the diaphragm are fixed, and it doesn’t have a viewer.

The original film size for this camera no longer exists, so I built some plate holders for 120 mm film. I just have one shot per plate, and that’s why I take a film-changing bag to the street, where I change the plates inside the camera. I use different film sensibilities, according to the light conditions of the shot and I adapt the developing process time according to these conditions.

Eric Jervaise