Documenting a Pregnancy

As I mentioned before, I bought a new-old camera as part of my grand scheme-pregnancy project part two. For our first pregnancy, my wife Jenn and I produced a DIY documentary about our pregnancy experience. I shot pictures the entire time using my Canon 5D. Then several months after the birth we interviewed each other and recalled our experiences. This was the result.

This time around, for the second pregnancy, we are doing something a little different. I shoot with a digital camera everyday and I’ve been eager for a chance to get back to basics. So I bought a Nikon S2, a fully mechanical rangefinder, no LCD, no light meter, made in 1955. And fitted with a 50mm f/2 and Provia film I will again take pictures the entire time. The ever present goal being to, obviously, tell the story in pictures.

Why choose a 56-year-old camera? Why shoot film? Why make it harder on myself? I often find myself asking this question along the way during various projects. I guess the answer is, unless it’s challenging I get bored. And if I get bored I loose interest and my work will show that I have done so. A characteristic I have come to recognize.

Through this process of documenting the birth of my second child with this camera, this seemingly replaceable mechanical object will embody something more. It will be forever kept and remembered as the camera that I documented the pregnancy and birth of my second child with. And I will pass it down to my child when he/she is old enough and it will be something he/she can keep forever and hand down to his/her child.

I guess that is why I chose to buy a beat up 56-year-old camera to use on this project. Digital files come and go, are created and corrupted, burned and lost. New models of digital cameras are released everyday. The cameras of the early to mid 20th century witnessed the “golden age” of photojournalism, street photography, conflict photography. I guess that’s why I find worth in these objects. When the tools you use are with you every step of the way through a life changing experience they become more than just tools. They become cherished pieces of your own history.

Here are pictures from the first roll of film I ran through the camera as a test.