Edited by: Roberta De Monte roberta.demonte@positive-magazine.com
Design by: Ystudio
Where: Nowhere
Proofreading: Bianca Baroni
The undisputed charm of old cameras still fascinates: even now, there are photographers who prefer to use older tools in order to get better performance. Unfortunately, in most cases, these cameras have been forgotten in some old shelf or in the attic, due to the increasing of technology.
For this reason the Japanese studio Ystudio decided to propose them again, transforming completely their use. With the Reborn series the study has reconverted, among the others, an old Afga accordion and the Leica strobe below, in an extraordinary complex of illumination systems and lamps.
Undoubtedly, these objects are very special, but the most important factor is the desire to preserve the craftsmanship of these machines, although their function is disrupted. The words that best represent the idea on which the project is based are those used by Ystudio to describe his goal: ‘making the old beauty melt in our new age’.
The principle is never to throw anything away, but to reorganize and rebuild. New technologies often make us discard objects that seem useless or that can’t be repaired –apparently. But the beauty of these cameras, their forms and their colors are indelible memories, which come to live through these lamps and return to tell new stories.