Photographer Wows Crowds by Capturing Football Match with 127-Year-Old Camera
In an amazing blend of sports and vintage photography, one intrepid photographer recently brought a 127-year-old camera to capture shots at a major football match, leaving spectators and fellow cameramen in awe. The stunning black-and-white photos, shared in a viral Reddit post, provide a nostalgic window into the beautiful game.
Taking pictures using a 127 year old camera
byu/EpicManJam inDamnthatsinteresting
The post, less than 30 seconds long, shows the photographer pulling out the antique accordion-style camera, a No. 4 Cartridge Kodak model from 1897, from its storage case. As he extends the retractable lens, nearby videographers on the sidelines can’t help marveling at the piece of photographic history.
The man behind the camera is Miles Myerscough-Harris, a professional photographer and videographer known for his experimentation with obscure and historic camera equipment. Myerscough-Harris picked up the rare Kodak, likely worth hundreds to collectors, at an antique store.
He was actually at the match, revealed to be at Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium, on assignment to recreate a team photo from 1924 for a Swedish football club. To get the perfect vintage look in the challenging light conditions, Myerscough-Harris opted to use Ilford Delta 3200 film.
“I needed to be sure I had film that was fast enough to capture the image in an indoor stadium, on a camera with fairly rudimentary controls,” he explained on Instagram. “It did the job perfectly! Plus the extra grain of 3200 ISO film helped make it look even more vintage.”
The final photos, though only briefly shown, depict atmospheric, grainy shots of the players and crowd, seemingly transporting the scenes back in time. One shows a wide view of the stadium, while others zoom in on groups of players in action on the pitch.
Online, viewers were impressed with both the antique camera and resulting shots. “I love the camera guys checking out your camera,” one Redditor noted, highlighting how the videographers stopped panning the crowd to appreciate the vintage equipment.
“The fact that camera still works is mind-blowing,” marveled another poster. This sparked discussion on the simple yet durable mechanics of early cameras.
“Old analog cameras are insanely simple,” explained one commenter. “A fixed lens and a shutter (sometimes with a simple clockwork timer, sometimes just a sliding flap that you open and close by hand) in a dark box. Changing the single-frame film blind is a PITA though.”
However, some expressed frustration that the video was shot vertically, making it hard to fully appreciate the photos. “Imagine taking this video in landscape so that, when the pictures were shown, they would fit the frame better,” one quipped.
Other commenters applauded the poetic combination of the beautiful game and the lost art of vintage photography. “Never expected Nujabes,” remarked one, referencing the wistful background music. “Makes me think of an alternate history world where they had all the tech we had now 127 years ago and where they would be now civilisation wise.”
While most celebrated the cross-generational story and images, a few critics felt the set-up didn’t showcase the camera’s full potential or live up to the hype of the post title. Likely in part due to the equipment’s limitations, the photographer stayed in his seat rather than zooming in on the field action.
Regardless of the mixed opinions, Myerscough-Harris’ experiment uniting sports, history and the art of analog photography clearly captured imaginations around the world, racking up over 26,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments on Reddit. As one user simply stated, “This is the coolest thing I’ve seen today.”