Dianas are inexpensive cameras with a plastic body and lens and very few controls for exposures. In the 1980s, I paid $2 each for them and later $5. Because they are full of light leaks, one has to load film in a darkroom, and tape the camera up with black electrical tape. Because I couldn't change film outdoors, I would go out to photograph, armed with a dozen cameras in my bag.
The attributes of the camera change the process of image-making from one of precision and detail to one that is an impressionistic, intuition-driven approach. Photographing is fraught with uncertainty. The odds of a light leak or poor exposure are not insignificant. The lens cannot produce a sharp image. It is impossible to precisely frame a photo with a Diana. Instead, one "feels" the image rather than seeing it. Because of the nature of the camera, these photos, for me, come from a different place--one that is more about the sub-conscious and perhaps emotional self than the conscious analytical mind.
The attributes of the camera change the process of image-making from one of precision and detail to one that is an impressionistic, intuition-driven approach. Photographing is fraught with uncertainty. The odds of a light leak or poor exposure are not insignificant. The lens cannot produce a sharp image. It is impossible to precisely frame a photo with a Diana. Instead, one "feels" the image rather than seeing it. Because of the nature of the camera, these photos, for me, come from a different place--one that is more about the sub-conscious and perhaps emotional self than the conscious analytical mind.