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In 2024, in an era of digital efficiency and AI-generated reality, the 99 Cameras Museum inaugurates an unprecedented photographic collaboration between generations.

In cooperation with Blind Magazine and Studio Harcourt, we challenged five seasoned documentary photographers to confront themselves to five iconic cameras dating from 1935 to 1964.

Over the summer, each photographer was equipped with a legendary camera, its original user manual, and five rolls of film. The result is a fresh, contemporary take on analog photography—a creative ‘carte blanche’ that captures the essence of reality, free from the performance-driven pressures of digital technology.

5 Documentary Photographers

Mathias Depardon is an award winning social documentary photographer. His work reveals significant social, economic, and political questions, challenging the idea of borders and identity.

Ismail Ferdous winner of the 2023 Leica Award, is a Bangladeshi photographer and filmmaker based in New York, USA. His work documents social and humanitarian issues in the contemporary world.

Gaia Squarci, photographer and filmmaker, splits her time between Milan and New York. She teaches digital storytelling at ICP and focuses on a personal approach in her work.

Théo Giacometti is an independent photojournalist and member of Studio Hans Lucas since 2018. Based in Marseille, his work concentrates on visual reports on social and environmental issues for the press and NGOs.

Alessandro Silvestri, originally from Rome and now based in Paris, is one Studio Harcourt’s official photographers since 2009. Passionate about old cameras and film photography, he explores anthropology, visual communication, and artistic research.

5 Iconic Cameras

To make this project truly unique, we selected five iconic cameras from our collection that played a meaningful role in the history of modern photography.

All the cameras underwent a very thorough renovation to ensure they could match their original specifications, sometimes nearly a century after their creation. Hadrien, the camera expert from Pelloche-Moi, took on the complex task of carrying out a complete restoration process that sometimes included a deep rebuild of these delicate mechanisms.

An Innovative Approach to Analog

In this unique adventure, documentary photographers revisit the universal theme of summer through the timeless art of analog photography. Together, they offer an intimate glimpse into the summer of 2024, capturing its essence with some of the most iconic analog cameras in history.

The exhibition invites visitors to explore each photographer’s work alongside the specific camera they used, creating a dual experience that celebrates analog photography as a vibrant, contemporary medium, fully grounded in the present and far from a vintage approach.

The Analog Chronicles champions analog photography as a way to capture reality unburdened by the quest for perfection of digital technology. Instead, it embraces a playful, daring, and deeply emotional approach to visual storytelling.

The artistic curation is lead by Jonas Cuénin director of Blind Magazine and the former editor-in-chief of L’Oeil de la Photographie and Camera magazines.

The exhibition is composed of 33 photographs available in limited and numbered series. All prints are exclusively produced and certified by Studio Harcourt, making them unique collectible items.

One-of-five prints can be purchased at the museum or online

Unique NFT editions are available on Foundation

Contact us if you want to know more

Press Release in French or English