Object Number 17

Object Name: Agfamatic 2008
Accessioned: 2009
Donor: gift
Notes: My mother's old camera.

Comments: This is the camera my mother used from the 1970s until the 1990s. As a child it was the most satisfying camera to take a photograph on based on the mechanical action alone. The excited clockwork noise it made as you slide the mechanism to roll forward the film, which gave it the name "Ritsch-Ratsch-Kameras", was a delight to me and still is. Anything with a big red button like that has its own particular attraction anyway.
It was a follow on from the camera featured in Object Number 6, it's film came in a neat little cartridge and produced tiny thin strips of negatives. Mostly I remember my mother having to take pictures outside as getting the flash to operate was a little tricky. When she did use it though it made that wonderful high pitched warming up noise. Not only did the flash screw onto the side but it was hooked up using a cable to the body of the camera.
Looking through the view finder, a little yellowed and with the silver brackets to aid in centring, makes everything look like the 1980s to me. Everything look just a little vintage, as if the world is framed in the paler, round-edged photographs of my childhood.