Nikon cameras in the movies

jmeyer | News | 02/07/2012 12:30pm

1 Comment

8. Blow-Up (1966)

This classic Sixties film is almost-but-not-quite based on a ‘day in the life’ of iconic fashion photographer David Bailey. Michelangelo Antonioni’s most famous cinema outing sees mod photographer Thomas (David Hemmings) take some photos of two lovers in a park. He then ‘blows up’ his black-and-white images, only to find what he thinks is evidence of a murder. Returning to the park, he does discover a body, but after a night of partying he goes back in the morning to find that the corpse has disappeared. He then drifts back into the hazy world of the swinging Sixties, unable to understand what’s happened.

The photographer: Oh dear. It obviously didn’t occur to anyone on set to give Hemmings a tutorial on how to handle an SLR. He’s all over the place in terms of technique– his left hand, in particular, almost never supports the camera as you’d expect it to. Nevertheless, the film turned the Nikon F from useful tool to iconic accessory overnight.

Most famous for: Its depiction of London life in the Sixties, from music to fashion.

WORTH WATCHING? Hemmings makes a hash of it, but this is still the most celebrated ‘Nikon movie’ ever made.

Posted on Monday, July 2nd, 2012 at 12:30 pm under News.