With film photography, it’s difficult to share how exactly one goes about making images. Unlike a digital camera, there is very little metadata to relate technical aspects (unless one properly documents while shooting; something I still struggle with).

With toy cameras especially, one develops an intuitive sense to how the camera will behave. The low quality technology means that there is a lot of variability even between cameras that are identical on paper. (A phenomena a classmate had described as “having a frenchman named Jacque living in [her] camera.)

I wanted a way to give more of an intimacy with how I am performing while producing still images. It’s quite a different feeling to watch me hold a pose for a minute than to see the completed image.

Even how the recording is made can change the mood given. Being a Fairy Today uses a pretty standard, almost documentarian camera, where the subject—myself—isn’t engaging with the camera directly. There’s a sort of neutrality to it.

Contrast that to Exhibitionist or Voyeur, where I had taped my phone camera to my Diana’s viewfinder. The creation of a heavy frame, the oversaturated colors, and general noisiness of the video gives the video a much darker, almost violating feeling.