film is manually advanced. A frame count can be
viewed through a red window on the back of the
camera. It is often recommended that the body of
the camera be taped with black electrical tape along
the seams to avoid light leaks.
For many photographers, the very nature of the
camera, a plastic toy, allows them a spontaneity
that they may not have with more sophisticated
and technical equipment. Through its friendly
appearance, it allows photographers an ease in
which to approach subjects and shoot pictures,
especially portraiture. The photographer embraces
and is challenged by the serendipitous nature of the
resulting work. The light leaks, along with the
shape of the negative, the distortion of the plastic
lens, and the fact that the lens is not color-corrected
all lend an element of surprise to the final image.
Often the images come out blurred and distorted,
achieving a dream-like, surreal quality.
The use of the camera by students and profes-
sionals in the United States dates to the late 1960s.
Early milestones include photographer Nancy
Rexroth’s portfolio of images included in ‘‘The
Snapshot’’ issue of Aperture in 1974. Her 1977
book entitled Iowa included Diana images that
were autobiographical of the artist’s childhood and
furthered her reputation as a serious photographer
who used the Diana camera. Another early project
that familiarized photographers with the camera
came in the late 1970s when photographer Mark
Schwartz, for a project entitledWe Do the Rest,
sent several hundred Diana cameras to United States
photographers, asking them to shoot the film and
return the camera with exposed film intact. In 1980,
David Featherstone organizedThe Diana Showfor
the Friends of Photography in Carmel, California.
Featuring the work of 43 photographers, the exhibit
and accompanying catalogue and essay were impor-
tant firsts in highlighting the Diana camera.
The Diana camera and its successors continue to
be used by amateur and professional photographers
in the fields of fine art, commercial photography,
and photojournalism. In the early 1990s, artist
Nancy Burson, best known for her digitized compo-
site portrait photographs, used the Diana camera to
photograph children with craniofacial condition, a
rare disfiguring disorder. Burson used the camera to
create subjective, softly focused portraits in sharp
contrast to more sterile, clinical portraits. Using the
contemporary Holga camera, award-winning pho-
tojournalist David Burnett captured unique and
powerful images of American political candidates
on the 2000 presidential campaign trail.
The idiosyncrasies of the Diana camera are its
legacy, allowing photographers to capture images
and express themselves in unique and unpredict-
able ways.
JIMMcDonald
Seealso: Burson, Nancy; Camera; Vernacular
PhotographyFurther Reading
Busselle, Rebecca. ‘‘A Defining Reality: The Photographs
of Nancy Burson,’’Aperture, No. 136, Summer (1994).
Burson, Nancy.Faces. Santa Fe, NM: Twin Palm Publish-
ers, 1993.
Featherstone, David.The Diana Show: Pictures Through a Plas-
tic Lens. Carmel, California: Friends of Photography, 1980.
Greene, Jonathan, ed. ‘‘The Snapshot.’’Aperture19:1, Mill-
erton, NY: Aperture, 1974.
Malcolm, Janet.Diana & Nikon. Boston: David R. Godine,
Publisher, Inc., 1980.
Rexroth, Nancy.Iowa. Albany, Ohio: Violet Press, 1977.
Van Riper, Frank. ‘‘Dr. Burnett’s Magic Box.’’Washington
Post(July 6, 2001).
Van Riper, Frank. ‘‘Holga’s (now-Unblinking) Plastic
Eye.’’Washington Post(January 3, 2002).CAMERA: DIGITAL
At the end of the twentieth century, digital cameras
were rapidly becoming the norm in many fields of
photography. Film photography struggled to com-
pete not in terms of quality, where it remains superior
for most photographers, but in the transformations
of use that the digital camera has enabled. Digital
cameras can be quite diverse in form and function
but there are two principle technologies that,
while not common to all digital cameras, will
serve to distinguish them from their conventionalCAMERA: DIGITAL