Ed Keer

“I live and shoot in Philadelphia with a variety of old film cameras. Because film is an outdated technology, all of my cameras are second-hand. Some I buy in thrift stores and some from other photographers. The camera I used to make these prints is a Diana—a plastic toy camera—I bought in a thrift store. I use a print process called lith printing, which requires a special type of paper. Currently there are only 2 brands of paper that work with this process available. In the past year I have started to seek out expired paper to make lith prints. All of the prints in this series are made on expired paper. 

I shoot black and white and color film with a variety of cameras ranging from simple box cameras, and plastic toy cameras to vintage consumer and professional cameras. 
I like to keep the workflow simple from image capture to final print. The old cameras also introduce random elements into the process. These prints were developed using lith developer which gives 2 effects. First it produces a high-contrast, grainy, and toned look that accentuates the artifice of the print. Second, it is somewhat unpredictable—no two prints are exactly the same—thus adding another opportunity for random effects. Using my hands as much as possible, I like the challenge of taking a very simple image capture system and creating a final complex print.”