Behind the lens

 

Image: Orkney Library and Archive, from an original Garvie album, not yet digitised.

What kind of camera did Dr Garvie use? 

There are a few glimpses of cameras in Beatrice Garvie's own photo albums, like the ones in the picture above. 

Mostly in these, we can see she is holding a small upright camera, which has a flip up viewfinder.

I was having no luck in tracing this kind of camera, until I took part in a podcast called 'Unforgotten Highland Women'.

Image: Orkney Library and Archive, from an original Garvie album, not yet digitised.

Beatrice Garvie's great nieces, Fenella and Fiona, had come along to the podcast, and when I showed this picture on screen, Sharon, Fenella's daughter said "hold on a minute!"

Then she went to find this:

Image: Fiona Sanderson, 'Unforgotten Women podcast'

It's a Voigtlander 'Brilliant' camera. Without the little leather strap across, you can see the 'Voigtlander' badging, which I think I can make out in the picture of her in the photograph above. 

Does the fact that the Garvie family still own a camera of this kind point to the likelihood of Beatrice Garvie having a camera just like it? Well, I would argue that it adds to our evidence at least.

We can see from the format of her pictures that she often used more than one camera, and would have them set up ready for particular occasions, such as the putting up of a stone roof on the new bakery at Trebb, or the arrival of the first plane at the new airfield on North Ronaldsay.

In these sequences, it is possible that she had one camera set up on a tripod, while another was hand held, and useful for getting to just the right spot for her picture quickly.

Here are three Voigtlander cameras I've acquired since that podcast. 

They are currently in use for a camera project, where islanders who want to can borrow a camera. They have just one film of eight shots, to take pictures of things that are important to record now. 

More on that soon.

Image: Fiona Sanderson. Three Voigtlander cameras.