Voyage of the Voigtländer

This time two weeks ago I was in the Bavarian region of Germany, more specifically a town called Tützing. I was sorting and rummaging through memorabilia and a treasure trove of retrospective objects, many of which I'm sure a London hipster would give their 'rolled up pant' right leg for.

This body of thinamajigs and watchamacallits belonged to my boyfriend's Opa, who at 94 years young, was moving into a retirement home nestled in the Alps, in a town called Öberammergau. He once owned a photography store and was a skilled amateur pre-digital photographer himself. Countless cameras, paints, photographic lens's, postcards and records revealed the passionate artist that lived within.

Given his keen interest in photography, the gift idea to celebrate his 94th year came easily. The classic Voigtländer camera, one of the oldest names in cameras, formed the crux of the idea, which was to make a hand-drawn plate camera box that holds photographs (instead of glass plates) in the back.

I found a few different images of the Voigtländer plate camera online, and used these to inform my drawing of a front-on view of the camera. The paper I used was 300gsm smooth watercolour, meaning it could hold the ink and fold into shape nicely.

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photograph of the final finished artwork. But I did scan in the front of the camera, which I've inserted below. It made me very pleased upon receipt of his gift, Opa drew a large smile and recognised the camera right away!