All Consuming

Cameras

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Episode notes

With over 90% of our photos now captured on phones, Charlotte Stavrou and Amit Katwala go in search of what cameras mean today and how they have evolved since their origins in the 19th century. Ruth Quinn, curator of photography and photographic technology at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, shines a light on how photographic cameras were born out of a Victorian fascination with chemistry and optics. Long-time Kodak employee, Steve Sasson, reveals how a brief to play with a new bit of kit in the 1970s led to his invention of the digital camera. Meanwhile, Dr Alix Barasch, Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Colorado, discusses the ways phone cameras and image-sharing apps are not only changing how we process our environment but also what we do. And Charlotte takes a trip into the dark room with photographer Alia Romagnoli to develop a portrait taken on a film camera for a recent series on queer men and masculinity and discusses why these old manual devices are back in fashion with Gen Z. Producer: Ruth Abrahams A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4