Mapping Meaning, the Journal (Issue No. 1)

The Breath Camera: a prototype for anticapitalist photography
Trudi Lynn Smith
The Breath Camera mixes the fleshy with
the fleeting. It is a wearable form made
to expand on capacities for noticing while
immersed in/as camera. Bellows removed
from a 4x5 large-format view camera
were modified and attached to a soft front
standard with simple lenses and a soft back
standard holds a viewing screen. Users
shroud themselves in a long 1 x 4 metre
darkcloth and supports the camera in their
hands. Controlling the flexible bellows, air
circulates through the camera, and images
slip in and out of focus.
In/As the Breath Camera, immersion
under the darkcloth and the motion of the
bellows work together as a reminder of
ongoing movement of the breathing body
and more-than human world. The Breath
Camera cycles: a fluctuating field firms up
(contracting) and drifts (expanding).
Breathing is a process of expansion and of
contraction, breathing provides an important
base for speech, song, laughter, yawning,
coughing, sneezing, and panting. Difficulty
breathing can be an indicator of stress
and disease.
The camera invites embodied
experimentation with the foundational
properties of photography: lenses, light,
and images, while immersed in the ongoing
movement of embodied experience out of
which still shots are extrapolated as events.
The camera can be experienced individually
Figure 2 2016 Mapping Meaning. Santa Cruz National Preserve, USA. Photographic documentation.
32 Mapping Meaning, the Journal