Toronto. Yesterday, boxing day, I mentioned the box camera. How about the ubiquitous folder popularized by Kodak? The box camera user could upgrade his camera and skills by investing in a folder. These compact cameras used a bellows to set the distance from film to lens allowing even closer photos to be taken, while a better quality shutter and lens increased the range of speeds and f/stops.
Like its earlier siblings, a folder size was chosen to match the desired print size. It was popular in the days when contact prints were common and enlarged prints rare – enlargements came with the minicam craze of the 1930s.
My father used a box camera when he went out west as a youth to help harvest. When he married, he invested in this Kodak Junior Six-20 and used it for many years taking pictures of his family and surroundings.
Folders even went to the first world war. The sturdy little black enamelled Kodak using 127 film would close and tuck neatly in a shirt pocket, well protected and safely out of sight.
