Need a prop - 1910s camera

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi folks,

 

Stills camera, 1910s.

 

This is a bit of a long shot, but I've tried the standard prop houses (Curious Science etc) and can't find a thing.

 

I'm putting together a little test shoot next week which is to take a historical bent on the "photo session" storyline so beloved of fashion photography. Part of it is to take place in a historical context, ideally just pre-world-war-1, so 1910 to 1920 although the camera could of course be older. In an ideal world, it'd be a view camera, so we can do the whole inverted-ground-glass-image thing.

 

This is a very small personal thing, which minimises the risk to potentially-valuable artifacts, though there is a budget. One day, middle of next week.

 

Any pointers gratefully received.

 

Best,

 

Phil

[Landon D. Parks]

If you're good with design you could probably make one that would pass muster. From the outside those ancient cameras weren't always the pillar of design, after all.

 

Otherwise, have you tried some houses in America like www.propserviceswest.com/ or maybe even Warner Bros Prop supply?

[Phil Rhodes]

Building something did spring to mind, but I think I've found a solution here. It may be a pretty spectacular location with historic props. If so I'll post pics.

[Dom Jaeger]

Vintage Props seems to have a number of plate cameras in their inventory, or is that not what you're after?

 

If your solution falls through, I would try local camera collector societies.