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When I was in art school I studied photo and found it really frustrating that the most successful photographers had all chosen a camera for themselves that they worked with almost all the time: for Ryan McGinley & Terry Richardson it was the Yashika T4, for Juergen Teller it was the Contax G2, Wolfgang Tillmans used a Leica with a 35mm lens. Something about this felt disingenuous and try as I might I could never find my version of that thing. It hasn’t been since I abandoned and rediscovered photography that I found that my first point-and-shoot digital camera - the 2005 Canon Powershot G7 - is mine. I adore this freaking thing and shoot all my portraits with it. You can get them usually for $50 on eBay, the flash is powerful, and it has a fantastic zoom. There’s also a really nice video feature that can handle low light and somehow translates colors in a way that feels “straight from the tube” - I’ve already shot a short film on it and want to make more videos with it soon.
Dec 21, 2021
Related Recs
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I’ve dabbled in photography for about 15 years and I’ve tried all kinds of film and digital cameras - as of late I have settled on these two.
The Canon is a surprisingly heavy duty point and shoot digi-cam. So far it’s the best balance of photo quality / features I could find in an early 2000s model. The batteries are rechargeable and still available to buy new, the flash recharges really fast and it has a full manual mode if you want to get more involved with settings etc. Only downside is these shoot compact flash which you will probably need to buy a dongle for. I’m sure you can find a model that shoots SD though!
The Nikon EM is about as basic as you can get with a manual focus SLR. The camera shoots aperture priority auto - meaning you can’t control the shutter speed, however there is a really easy to use built in light meter that beeps if you are at the risk of under or over exposing the image; this makes it really easy to consistently take good photos. Great starter film camera if that’s the route your going down.
With all this being said - the best camera is always whatever you can get your hands on! I have shot great photos on shit cameras and shit photos on great cameras. Ya never know what is going to work for you until you try it. Have fun.
Jan 8, 2025
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A great digital camera from the turn of the century. I love shooting film but it's so expensive, so I bought a Powershot for like $100 on eBay. You might have one in your childhood bedroom or your parent's computer desk.
Apr 18, 2024
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I’ve had the best luck with a couple different models of the canon powershot digital cameras! I think they’re great quality and they give that nostalgic look to photos that remind me of when I was a kid. Some have rechargeable batteries and some take double a batteries, you can definitely find one on eBay, depending on the model it might be more expensive than others. I bought myself an sd card reader that I can plug into my phone whenever I do want to upload my photos for printing or posting.
Jan 15, 2025
Top Recs from @asher-penn
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Eugene Kotlyarenko’s debut film 0’s & 1’s is still my favorite - and it’s heartwarming to know that it’s only been a decade after its premiere at a tiny Brooklyn theater that it’s finally getting the big screen screenings that it truly deserves. The simple story of a guy retracing his steps trying to find his lost computer - Slacker meets Dude Where’s My Car for the first generation of terminally online. But it’s the film’s relentless art direction that truly sets it apart - a multicam extravaganza framed within dozens of custom interfaces that rival both Hackers and The Net in channeling and elevating the aesthetics of the moment with painstakingly detailed easter eggs to be found on every fleeting frame. I’d also like to give a shout-out to We Are, my second favorite film by Eugene. Self-released almost a year ago, We Are is a continuation of his romantic comedies about breakups A Wonderful Cloud (2015) and Wobble Palace (2018) starring hapless losers mired in technological detritus - in this case, the employee of a pathetic virtual reality arcade. But unlike its predecessors We Are is Eugene’s most casual film to date, made with a whimsical looseness echoed in the character Stick’s XL tourist t-shirts and the soft soothing pace of his fidget spinner. It’s a funny movie, but it’s also sad… when Eugene breaks the 4th wall and slates a scene with Dasha, there is a self-accepting effortlessness that really feels like letting go. We Are is just a movie and that’s all it needs to be.
Dec 21, 2021
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They say that the best design is no design, and I can’t think of a better example than No Frills, a low-cost supermarket chain in Canada that since the late ’70s has been easily recognized for its iconic simple in-house branding. Operating on the premise that making graphic design decisions is a major unnecessary expense No Frills follows a strict style guide of Pantone Yellow C combined with large bold Helvetica Neue 75 for all its interiors and packaging: pickles, dark chocolate, hummus, evaporated milk, olive oil all get the same point-blank treatment. The closest I’ve ever seen to this aesthetic is on that TV show Lost where all the food comes from The Dharma Initiative. Walking down their aisles can feel dystopian and autistic but also timelessly chic - a ridiculous marketing concept leaned into with a commitment that I hope they never abandon.
Dec 21, 2021
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From what I can tell, artist Jeffrey Scudder is the only post-internet artist to figure out Tik-Tok, with his Whistelgraph project recently hitting 2 Million followers. Whistlegraphs are tiny songs that are performed through drawing, where the sonic and visual gestures synch up poetically - kind of like a haiku that you animate in real-time - that for the past two years have been performed in videos by Scudder alongside artists Camille Klein and Alex Freundlich. Pioneers in their own experimental artform, Whistlegraph seems to be channeling a lot of things at the same time - If I were to free-associate I’d say it feels spiritually connected to Brendan Fowler and Odwalla88 and Tori Kudo, but also Josh Smith and David O’Reilly and Susan Cianciolo - not that any of their devoted fans would know or care about that stuff. Their audience is predominantly between the ages of 8-17, and the most comprehensive interview with Whistlegraph to date was done by a 13-year-old superfan named Perry. Watching Perry perform “Butterfly Cosplayer” with glee makes me wonder if the current iteration of Whistlegraph is just the beginning and that the most exciting manifestations of this art form will be found in generations to come.
Dec 21, 2021