What is Les Temps Modernes

Les Temps Modernes is an attempt to come to terms with photography by looking to the technology of the past. We are not opposed to the digital age so much as we are fascinated by the mechanical age and the various means it devised to capture the still image. This site about the way people used to take pictures and in the coming weeks we hope to have more to say on that subject. In the meantime, please visit the galleries section and enjoy.

Cameras

All the photographs on this site were taken with Polaroid Land Cameras, manufactured between 1962 and 1972. The majority of pictures were taken using a Polaroid Land Camera Model 450 (ca. 1971), although there are also pictures taken with a 103, a 210 and a 340. All of the cameras were found in charity shops, or in neglected corners of people's houses or on eBay and pretty much all of them, despite the years of neglect, were found in excellent working order. The advantage of photography as a mechanical (as opposed to digital) process is that the cameras involved are essentially simple machines.

For information on the various Land Cameras manufactured by Polaroid during the sixties and seventies, follow the link to Jim's Camera Site on the links page.

Film

Most, if not all of the photographs on this site were taken using Polaroid 664 which is a 100 speed film.