I'm doing a college project about Eugene Atget and in his biography it says he used "an 18 x 24 cm bellows camera, rectilinear lenses and plate holders," could you please fill me in as to wast these are and any other information about them that might be useful for my project. Thanks, Kelly.

-- Kelly Barlow (angelicxxx@yahoo.co.uk), March 13, 2002

Answers

18 x 24 cm bellows camera = A large format camera using approximatley 8 inch by 10 inch film and an accordion type bellows that allows the lens to be moved independently from the film to focus and adjust some types of perspective.

rectilinear lenses = Normal lenses as opposed to fisheye lenses. A rectilinear lens keeps straight lines straight.

plate holders = A method of holding film to the rear of the camera. It normally allows only one piece of film per plate.

These cameras are still in use although they are not all that popular with the snapshooters.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), March 14, 2002.

Yes. Eugene was banned from many Parisienne restaurants for stealing their plates and plate holders.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), March 18, 2002.