Aemiessence Fine Arts: Film Camera Macro Photos as a Snapshot of Society (March 2021)

I recently inherited a box of old no longer functioning older cameras from a friend, and decided to disassemble them all. I didn't have any specific reason to, and I have taken apart older cameras before, but I was surprised at how struck I was when I popped the first bottom off of the first camera - a relatively simple camera, the Canon EOS Rebel Ti SLR 35mm film camera. I was struck by how (frankly) beautiful the four little gears that were spread across the bottom of the camera (first photo below) and immediately decided to do macro photos of all the small workings inside the cameras, especially in the cameras that had a mixture of mechanical and electronic elements in them.

On one level, I was thinking in terms of how important each tiny part of the camera is, and how if any of those functions - even a tiny screw - stopped working or broke, the photographer would no longer be able to use the camera.

But this is true on a much deeper level as well when one looks at society. Every person, every job, every role - no how matter how insignificant they may seem - is vital. And often the most important people - who really make things run - are the most ignored, forgotten, and hidden people.

I think one of the most magnificent things that I found while taking the cameras apart was on the Mamiya/Sekor 1000 DTL, which has a tiny gold chain running through the entire camera on little pullies (see photo below). There is tremendous beauty in many hidden places - we would be wise to lift this beauty up in others when we seek it and see it.

Paul in the New Testament writes beautifully about this as it pertains to the Christian faith and how the community of faith should view each other and support each other.

I Corinthians 12:12-26 ESV:

"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in on Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indespensible, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together."