Art and Architecture: Camera Crazy - Analog Photography | Christopher Salyers, Buzz Poole, Michelle Bates, Christopher Bonanos, Paul Kwiatkowski, Arezoo Moseni, Christian Polt, J. K. Putnam | Design and Style Series Event

FREE - Auditorium doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Exploring the role of toy and novelty cameras in contemporary photography, this panel uses them as a point of entry into a broader discussion of analog photography as it exists today in the digital landscape. Featuring panelists,  Christopher Salyers, Buzz Poole, Michelle Bates, Christopher Bonanos, Paul Kwiatkowski, Christian Polt, and J. K. Putnam who have deep knowledge of these types of cameras – from Lomography to Polaroid – and the photographers who use them. The discussion ranges from the marketing of photography to fine art and collector culture. The panel is moderated by Arezoo Moseni.

Showcasing the most unusual and unique examples of functioning toy cameras—retro analogs, branded novelties, new products from Japan—and the photographs they create, the new book Camera Crazy explores the history and full range of this incredibly popular, and often quirky, photography niche. The book is more than a collection of plastic cameras. It’s the world as seen through a child’s eyes: a world of bright color, unexpected results, and exciting possibilities.

All attendees receive a free raffle ticket, as they enter the Auditorium, for a chance to win a camera from the selection of toy cameras from the authors' collection.

Attendees are encouraged to bring their own favorite toy camera to show and tell at the end of the panel discussion. Each attendee gets one minute to tell the camera's story.

Copies of the books Camera Crazy, And Every Day Was Overcast, Instant: The Story of Polaroid  and Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity are available for purchase and signing at the event beginning at 5:30 p.m. 

Co-author of Camera Crazy, Christopher D. Salyers is a Brooklyn-based designer, toy camera collector, and author of numerous popular culture titles, including Vending Machines: Coined Consumerism and Face Food Recipes. His work has been featured in Wired, The New York Times, Fast Company, Fader, Monocle, TV Asahi, and Fox News. 

Co-author of Camera Crazy, Buzz Poole has written about books, design, art, and culture for numerous outlets, including Print, The Village Voice, The Believer, Los Angeles Review of Books, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Millions. He is the author of the story collection I Like to Keep My Troubles on the Windy Side of Things; the New Statesman named his examination of unexpected iconography, Madonna of the Toast, one of 2007’s Best Underground Books. Currently, he is working on a book about the Grateful Dead album Workingman's Dead, which will be part of the 33 1/3 series. 

Michelle Bates first used a Holga camera in 1991. She is the author of Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity, a comprehensive book about the genre, now in its second edition, that includes images by 50 photographers. Her photographs have been exhibited worldwide, and she has taught and spoken about low-tech and toy cameras at major photography schools, centers and conferences, as well as bookstores, around the country.

Christopher Bonanos is the author of Instant: The Story of Polaroid and an editor at New York Magazine, where he covers arts and urban affairs. He's written for The New York Times, Slate, Businessweek, and many other publications, and maintains his own Website at polaroidland.net. He is also at work on a biography of the photographer Arthur Fellig, a.k.a. Weegee, to be published by Henry Holt in 2017. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and their son, who appears in many, many Polaroid photographs.

Paul Kwiatkowski is the author of And Every Day Was Overcast. He is a writer and photographer. 

Arezoo Moseni is an artist. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at major venues in the United States and abroad such as FIAC 2014, and is held in numerous public and private collections including the Brooklyn Museum, Bibliotheque nationale de France, and Musee de La Photographie. She is the recipient of fellowships and grants including the Carnegie Corporation of New York | New York Times award, Kentler International Work on Site grant, Yaddo Fellowship and Artists Space Independent Project grant. She has worked with 810 field and view cameras since 1988. She curates exhibitions and events at The New York Public Library where she has initiated several ongoing exhibition and program series featuring emerging and renowned artists, authors, critics, designers and others.

Christian Polt is a businessman, photographer, and designer, born and raised in Vienna, Austria. Polt currently works in New York City as the General Manager for Lomography USA, providing him great access to analog plastic cameras, which he loves to shoot.

J. K. Putnam has been published in dozens of photography and design books including CBGB: Decades of Graffiti, Decay, and Past Objects. He travels as often as life affords him to capture images of the wild and distant places featured in his photographs. His collection spans five of the seven continents and contains pictures of both the natural and modern world. 

Conceived and organized by Arezoo Moseni and in its fourth year, Design and Style is a series of events featuring discussions and presentations by leading professionals in the various design fields.

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