Do you remember when you used to finish a roll of film, rewind it and take it to be developed in its little black case? The element of surprise was fantastic wasn’t it?!
Cassia Beck has been telling me all about her vintage cameras and the inspiration behind her work.
‘Brighton is full of inspiration!’ says Cassia ‘I am inspired by shop window displays and the seaside attractions I once hated. The Helter Skelter and Carousel on the pier are part of my most popular photographs’.
Cassia evokes a sense of nostalgia in her work by using vintage cameras – the results look like something unearthed from a time capsule due to the scratches and fluff on the lens. She explains how she started out: ‘I knew someone who owned a Holga camera, I fell in love with the saturated colours, vignetting and light leaks’. She bought a Kodak
Duaflex which she uses to produce these fantastic images.
When you look at her seaside collection – the helter skelter on the pier and an image of the seafront carousel which she has romantically entitled ‘A Love Affair Rekindled’ – you really get a sense of good old fashioned ‘Britishness’!… of a time when life was simple.
As well as seaside icons Cassia also shoots and sells nature prints – images of beautiful flowers entitled ‘I loved You Once’ and ‘Raspberries & Cream’. And…. As if these fabulous images aren’t enough…. she runs a second online shop (via Etsy) called ‘Lola’s Room’. The images in Lola’s room have a different look and feel about them and are achieved using a digital camera and post processing to wash out and fade the colours. The images are sweet, nostalgic and contain plenty of pastel colours! – Reels of pretty cotton, jars of sweets, cupcakes…
Cassia sets up still life shots at home using her much loved vintage ornaments as props.
Currently Cassia is working on a project with fellow photographer Shannon Blue. It’s a year long project entitled ‘A Year in Pictures’ whereby each photographer takes one
photograph a week of an everyday subject and they’re displayed side by side. ‘We thought it would be interesting to see our different view of the same subject’.
You can follow this project via the blog http://everydayvision.blogspot.com/ and you can browse and buy Cassia’s iconic images for yourself on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=8201757 and Folky http://www.folksy.com/shops/CassiaBeck
Her work is also displayed at the IO Gallery in Brighton.
By Helen Ruff
