What’s so great about disposable cameras? They went out with the Stone Age; surely, around the time digital cameras came in and took over the world. Not really. When digital cameras arrived they simply changed the way disposable cameras were used. Digital cameras took over all the â€normal†functions of throwaway photography †they made images recyclable and completely evanescent by allowing users to take hundreds of shots, review them instantly, and chuck the ones they didn’t like. Effectively, that made digital cameras the new weapon of choice for the quick-fix photographer, relegating disposable cameras into a choice: change use, or die. Fortunately for anyone who enjoyed, and enjoys, the aspects of film photography digital cameras can never replicate †the mystery, the anticipation, the waiting for the film to be developed †disposable cameras diversified rapidly. With digital occupying centre stage for cheap or â€meaningless†photography, disposable cameras found a niche in the hearts and pockets of photographers who probably used film loaded SLRs until they became expensively obsolete. Disposable cameras started being used by people who wanted to bring some of the art back into â€snapping†(i.e. basic photography) †and they’ve made a whole niche market out of it. What disposable cameras do that digital will never be able to, is force the user to take notice of the things he or she is photographing. Digital photography, unless it’s done on an expensive SLR where the user is required to manipulate focus, depth of field and so on, is a very cavalier â€discipline††because a person can take so many shots, all of which are replaceable, that person ends up not really paying any attention to what he or she is doing. Disposable cameras, on the other hand, distil the old art of photography to its simplest form: you have to notice what you are framing, what you are shooting, and keep some kind of idea in your head about what you think it will look like. With disposable cameras the user cannot review what has just been done. They have to wait. And that waiting resurrects the whole original joy of photography †disposable cameras allow users to rediscover the art of composing a moment that, once the shutter has been pressed, is gone forever. The results of that combination of moment and shutter-release can’t be known until the disposable cameras are sent to the developers. That always used to be the beauty of photography, and thanks to disposable cameras it can be again. Their simplicity belies the importance of their use: in many ways, disposable cameras have been forced, by digital, to become working relics of the time when photography started. It’s like having a Box Brownie all over again †only one that fits in your pocket and doesn’t take half an hour to set up. So three rousing cheers, please, for disposable cameras †without them, photography wouldn’t be art any more.
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