“The One With the Yellow Flowers and the Blue Cloth” by Noa Chandler.

By Jason Gutierrez

Photographers capture moments from the magnificent to mundane. More than a trick of the light, photos immortalize their subjects and remind the viewer of a familiar day, time, and what may feel like a different life.

The artform’s progression has left a trail of technologies for photographers of all skill sets to sink their teeth into. Although digital cameras undoubtedly rule our selfie-crazed world, the resurgence of film photography demonstrates an appetite for images other than crystal-clear shots perfected in Adobe’s digital lightroom.

The Somerville Toy Camera Festival (STCF) challenges global photographers to relinquish control and tap their toe to the toy camera’s beating drum. With their instrument stripped to its basics, toy camera photographers embrace the unknown and new techniques to score the sweetest shot.

The festival defines a “toy camera” as a low-technology camera with no or limited exposure control. Light-sensitive film is loaded into a camera, exposed to light, and given a chemical bath. The end result is unpredictable, imprecise, and, nonetheless, beautiful.

With camera controls out of mind, the artist develops a clarity in concept that emerges in the film development process. The artist’s imagination runs wild and arrives at a photograph as unique as their own fingerprint. The liberating process leaves toy camera photographers coming back for more.

For Marky Kauffman, an art teacher based in Somerville, toy camera photography began as a metaphorical finger to the culprit who stole her professional gear. Her spite-purchase totaled $6. Ed Doucette, a pharmacist based in Hudson, MA, began experimenting with film photography over a decade ago when he dusted off the forgotten pinhole camera he once gifted to his kid.

Toy cameras allow artists to enjoy their view rather than worrying about the correct technical settings, resulting in a visual feast for us all.

View the 2023 Somerville Toy Camera Festival selections online at www.somervilletoycamera.org and at the Somerville’s Brickbottom, Washington St, and Nave Galleries. Visit the website for related programming, such as artist talks/panel discussions, workshops, and social events.