Softcover, edition of 800 copies,desgin by Jorma Hinkka, text by Martti Jämsä.
„I was immediately fascinated by old round photographs when I first saw them. Later, I read that the lens of the Kodak No.1 camera was so poor that its resolution did not extend to the edges of the negative. Therefore, the pictures became round. Might George Eastman have been in too much of a hurry to get the camera on the Christmas market in 1888? In this case – as often happens in photography – coincidence helped achieve fine results.
Years passed. I even managed to buy a few of these authentic photographs glued on pasteboard. I held them gently in my hands. On the reverse, I could see and read the fine logo of the Eastman Company. In addition, the names of people unknown to me were written under the photographs.
A moment of crystallized captured time. A photograph keeps many secrets in the magical touch of light on objects, people and the landscape, slowly fading memories.
An arrested moment – George Eastman called these first mass-produced photographs “snap shots”. “You press the button, we do the rest.” Could it be said in any easier way? Photographs could now be taken of whatever and whenever. Photography became quotidian. This was no doubt his intention, but he could not have anticipated today’s digitized flood of images, which at the same time meant the inevitable decline of photographs developed from film.
I wanted to imitate these pictures so much that I drew circles on the viewfinders of my cameras with ink. I could thus see while photographing what the results would be once I die-cut my selenium-toned silver-gelatin prints to a round shape with a tool of my own making. While taking new photographs, I also searched among my negatives for photographs that I felt would work in this format that was new to me.
I hope this book will be like a child’s box of treasures containing special things painstakingly acquired through hard work and random discoveries – or like a dusty butterfly collection dear to me forgotten at the back of a bookcase. My book also pays homage to an important pioneer of photography, George Eastman.“

Order at Musta Taide.

Pages: 64
Place: Helsinki
Year: 2014
Publisher: Musta Taide Aalto Photo Books
Size: 14 x 17 cm (approx.)

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