Brownie is the name of a long-running and extremely popular series of simple and inexpensive
camerathumb |right|Cameras from Large to Small, Film to Digital A camera is a device that records images, either as a still photograph or as moving images known as videos or movies...
s made by
Eastman KodakEastman Kodak Company is a multinational US corporation which produces imaging and photographic materials and equipment. Long known for its wide range of photographic film products, Kodak is re-focusing on two major markets: digital photography and digital printing.- Origins :Kodak's origins rest...
. The Brownie popularized low-cost photography and introduced the concept of the
snapshotA snapshot is popularly defined as a photograph that is "shot" spontaneously and quickly, most often without artistic or journalistic intent. Snapshots are commonly considered to be technically "imperfect" or amateurish--out of focus or poorly framed or composed. The term derives from the snap...
. The first Brownie, introduced in February, 1900, was a very basic
cardboardPaperboard is a 'vegetable-fibre web' formed from a water suspension. While there is no rigid differentiation between paper and paperboard, paperboard is generally thicker than paper. According to ISO standards, paperboard is a paper with a basis weight above 224 g/m², but there are exceptions...
box cameraThe box camera is, with the exception of the pin hole camera, a camera in its simplest form. The classic box camera is shaped more or less like a box, hence the name. A box camera has a simple optical system, often only in the form of a simple meniscus lens. It usually lacks a focusing system as...
with a simple
meniscusMeniscus, plural: menisci/meniscuses, from the Greek for "crescent", is a curve in the surface of a molecular substance and is produced in response to the surface of the container or another object. It can be either concave or convex. A convex meniscus occurs when the molecules have a stronger...
lensA photographic lens is an optical lens or assembly of lenses used in conjunction with a camera body and mechanism to make images of objects either on photographic film or on other media capable of storing an image chemically or electronically.While in principle a simple convex lens will suffice,...
that took 2¼-inch square pictures on 117 rollfilm. With its simple controls and initial price of $1, it was intended to be a camera that anyone could afford and use, leading to the popular slogan, "You push the button, we do the rest." The camera was named after the popular cartoons created by
Palmer CoxPalmer Cox was a Canadian illustrator and author, best known for his series of humorous verse books and comic strips about the mischievous but kindhearted fairy-like The Brownies. The cartoons were published in several books, such as The Brownies, Their Book...
.
One of the most popular Brownie models was the
Brownie 127, millions of which were sold between 1952 and 1967.
Brownie is the name of a long-running and extremely popular series of simple and inexpensive
camerathumb |right|Cameras from Large to Small, Film to Digital A camera is a device that records images, either as a still photograph or as moving images known as videos or movies...
s made by
Eastman KodakEastman Kodak Company is a multinational US corporation which produces imaging and photographic materials and equipment. Long known for its wide range of photographic film products, Kodak is re-focusing on two major markets: digital photography and digital printing.- Origins :Kodak's origins rest...
. The Brownie popularized low-cost photography and introduced the concept of the
snapshotA snapshot is popularly defined as a photograph that is "shot" spontaneously and quickly, most often without artistic or journalistic intent. Snapshots are commonly considered to be technically "imperfect" or amateurish--out of focus or poorly framed or composed. The term derives from the snap...
. The first Brownie, introduced in February, 1900, was a very basic
cardboardPaperboard is a 'vegetable-fibre web' formed from a water suspension. While there is no rigid differentiation between paper and paperboard, paperboard is generally thicker than paper. According to ISO standards, paperboard is a paper with a basis weight above 224 g/m², but there are exceptions...
box cameraThe box camera is, with the exception of the pin hole camera, a camera in its simplest form. The classic box camera is shaped more or less like a box, hence the name. A box camera has a simple optical system, often only in the form of a simple meniscus lens. It usually lacks a focusing system as...
with a simple
meniscusMeniscus, plural: menisci/meniscuses, from the Greek for "crescent", is a curve in the surface of a molecular substance and is produced in response to the surface of the container or another object. It can be either concave or convex. A convex meniscus occurs when the molecules have a stronger...
lensA photographic lens is an optical lens or assembly of lenses used in conjunction with a camera body and mechanism to make images of objects either on photographic film or on other media capable of storing an image chemically or electronically.While in principle a simple convex lens will suffice,...
that took 2¼-inch square pictures on 117 rollfilm. With its simple controls and initial price of $1, it was intended to be a camera that anyone could afford and use, leading to the popular slogan, "You push the button, we do the rest." The camera was named after the popular cartoons created by
Palmer CoxPalmer Cox was a Canadian illustrator and author, best known for his series of humorous verse books and comic strips about the mischievous but kindhearted fairy-like The Brownies. The cartoons were published in several books, such as The Brownies, Their Book...
.
One of the most popular Brownie models was the
Brownie 127, millions of which were sold between 1952 and 1967. The Brownie 127 was a simple
bakeliteBakelite , or polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, is an early plastic. It is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin, formed from an elimination reaction of phenol with formaldehyde, usually with a wood flour filler. It was developed in 1907–1909 by Belgian chemist Dr...
camera for
127 film127 is a film format for still photography. The image format is usually a square 4×4 cm, but rectangular 4×3 cm and 4×6 cm are also standard. Oddly, C. F. Foth & Co. used 36×24 mm for its first “Derby” model....
which featured a simple meniscus lens and a curved film plane to reduce the impact of deficiencies in the lens.
Having written an article in the 1940s for amateur photographers suggesting an expensive camera was unnecessary for quality photography, the famous
Picture PostPicture Post was a prominent photojournalistic magazine published in the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1957. It is considered a pioneering example of photojournalism and was an immediate success, selling 1,600,000 copies a week after only six months...
photographer
Bert HardyBert Hardy was a documentary and press photographer known for his work published in the Picture Post magazine between 1941 and1957....
used a Brownie camera to stage a carefully posed
snapshotA snapshot is popularly defined as a photograph that is "shot" spontaneously and quickly, most often without artistic or journalistic intent. Snapshots are commonly considered to be technically "imperfect" or amateurish--out of focus or poorly framed or composed. The term derives from the snap...
of two young women sitting on railings above a breezy
BlackpoolBlackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. Situated along the coast of the Irish Sea, it has a population of 142,900, making it the fourth-largest settlement in North West England behind Manchester, Liverpool and Warrington...
promenade.
In 1908, the Austrian architectural critic Joseph August Lux wrote a book called
Künstlerische Kodakgeheimnisse (Artistic Secrets of the Kodak) in which he championed the use of the camera for its cultural potential. Guided by a position that was influenced by the Catholic critique of modernity, he argued that the accessibility the camera provided for the amateur meant that people could photograph and document their surroundings and thus produce a type of stability in the ebb and flow of the modern world.
Beau Brownie
The Beau Brownie range was available from 1930 to 1933.
They differed very little from the ever-popular Brownie cameras; the only real difference being the introduction of the new "Doublet Lens", allowing the same picture to be projected on a film plate over a shorter distance, thus making the Beau Brownies nearly 2" shorter than their conventional counterparts.
Visually, they differed with the arrival of new enameled two-tone front plates in a heavily geometric and contemporary Art Deco design, the work of leading American Deco designer, Walter Dorwine Teague.
They were available in five colour combinations: Black and Burgundy, Brown and Tan, Two-tone Blue, Two-tone Green, and Two-tone Rose. The Rose and Green cameras were produced only between 1930 and '31, and therefore rarer than the others.
They also were encased in a desirable faux-leatherette casing.
They were available in No.2 and 2A formats, just like the Brownies.
The No.2 measuring 2 ¼" by 3 ¼" and using 120 roll film, and the 2A measuring 2¼" by 4¼", and taking 116 roll film.
They are visually distinguishable by the thicker, bakelite rim on the No. 2As, and the fact that it is an inch taller than the No. 2.
They originally cost $4 for a No. 2, and $5 for a No. 2A.
External links
Kodak Brownie, patented by Frank Brownell, filed July 1900