Antique Cameras with Grandpa Jerry

My Grandpa, Jerry Rice, lives down in the middle-of-nowhere southern Iowa on his farm. Like most other Iowa farmers, he has beef cattle out in the back and rotates between farming soybeans and corn.

However, unlike most Iowa farmers, he’s an incredibly talented photographer. Back in the 70s, he and my Grandma were missionaries out in Nepal – and he captured some incredible footage on his film cameras and super 8. Over the years I’ve seen more photos than I can remember and tried to help convert his rolls of film over to usable USB drives, and the photos truly make my jaw drop.

The grainy, washed, low-quality and inconsistent light gives his photos a timed and vintage look – like they’re something out of a history museum intro video. He describes the process of getting his film developed and it gives his photos another layer of preciousness – their value increases. And knowing that he was one of the few at the time and place that owned a camera, I can only imagine that his photos are some of the only existing ones from his time and area.

All to say, when he brought this antique camera out, I was more than thrilled to, very carefully, discover what it was, how it worked, what it captured back in it’s day and age.

I learned that it’s a Kodak Model A from the early 1900s. It looks old, it feels fragile and old, and it doesn’t have film – but yet there’s a deep desire in me to figure out if it can still operate. The correct film will be hard to find – but isn’t it worth it? When did we stop taking the time to explore and try new things?