Thursday 20 April 2017

Scrapbook Scrap No 2

It must've been sometime in the late 1970s, and a full page ad. in The Sunday Times Magazine. I'm ashamed I don't know which agency to credit, because this was an utterly original idea at the time. And still would be now really. It was part of a series that included Spike Milligan's Pentax with a face drawn on the silvered upper part of the body. Naturally. But being an uber fan of Ken Russell films I got particularly excited by this, and thought of all the shots it had taken and how it might've got that beautifully distressed look. Ken was a highly original photographer even before he started making films and his career took off with Monitor and Omnibus programmes at the BBC. I like to think that the absence of a strap was a personal choice rather than an art director's whim, because all the straps for cameras I've bought still lie unused in their cellophane packaging. I know it increases the possibility of a camera taking flight to possible destruction, but I feel hindered by them. I've only had one  photography equipment disaster (he says, gripping a wooden desk), and that was whilst changing a lens on a Northumbrian beach. The 28mm winged its way out of my hand in a slow but graceful arc in order to land on wet sand that subsequently gave it a very disturbing grinding feel when changing f-stops. A man in an attic in Epsom sorted it all out.

8 comments:

Phenixvin said...

I feel the same about camera straps...I remember this add well...I'm afraid I wasn't a great fan of either Pentax or Ken Russell. With regard to Ken Russell. Probably my loss.

Philip Wilkinson said...

Yes! I remember those ads. Which other Pentax users were in the series? Was Terence Conran one of the names included?

Peter Ashley said...

Not sure about Conran. Highly likely. I think I've got the Spike one.

Bureboyblog said...

I once consigned my Nikon D40 to the drink. it is suprising how nmuch water a camera and lens can hold...
Battery straight out and hid the whole lot in bits in the airing cupboard for a week. The only thing that didnt work after was the infra red timer release.

I fessed up about 3 years later.

Peter Ashley said...

Thanks for that Bureboy. Did you do the consigning on the Norfolk Bure? By Berney Arms or somewhere?

Unknown said...

David Bailey's Pentax had a strap - at least it did in the ad series. Your posting has prompted me to look at some of those old Pentax ads (and others)...weren't they lovely? Beautiful typography, great copy, just very seductive things, which is what of course was their purpose. I think it was a very special time for advertising...probably fuelled by...well let's not dwell on what it was fuelled by. Thanks for the memory.

Peter Ashley said...

Yes, a very special time. In graphics too. An awful lot of Emperor's New Clothes prancing off their hangers now.

Bureboyblog said...

I am a non-tidal Bureboy mostly Peter