My Cameras - the Box Brownie

The first camera I ever used was a Box Brownie.  It lay neglected in the dark, concealed within the fusty old sideboard in our dining-room.  I remember its faux-leather casing and a huge convex viewing lens, long-scarred and dusted with a thousand memories.

As an excited seven year old it seemed ... immense!

It was loaded with film, a simple black and white emulsion, then passed to me with a greasy coated lunch-box that contained ham sandwiches, Smith's Crisps with the little twisted blue bag of salt at the bottom, an apple and a half-melted Kit-Kat. A school outing to Hadrian's Wall.  Nose pressed tight to the cold bus-window as the world flashed by outside.

I took just a few shots.  Random stones and hard-etched summer-day shadows.  How I wish I had the prints with me now! A simple box Brownie, a start to my journey.