ASMR at the museum | Take a photo with a Victorian sliding box camera | V&A

// Listen with headphones for best experience //

Join Assistant Curator Hana Kaluznick as she shows us a Victorian sliding box camera made in about 1880, and demonstrates how it would have been used. The sliding box camera advanced how photographs were taken in the 19th century, allowing the photographer to vary the focal length. This meant that they could get closer to, or further away from, the subject than ever before.

Watch and listen as Hana shows us the details of the camera including the engraved silver lens and original label, before carefully adjusting the length of the box and sliding open the mahogany plate holder.

00:00 What is a sliding box camera?
00:51 Details of the camera: engraved silver lens, labels
01:40 Mechanics of the camera
02:13 Sliding the box open by twisting knob, to adjust focal length
02:50 Tapping on the hollow camera, no electronics inside
03:07 How to use a sliding box camera
03:25 Ground glass
04:09 Sliding open the plate holder
06:35 Victorian studio photography and examples taken with a sliding box camera
07:15 Contemporary use of the camera

See more cameras and photography in our Photography Centre: https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/photograph...

See more objects from our photography collection: https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/pho...

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