Gala Edition

Forget boring, black-bodied photo gear. The Gala collection is stylish and functional!

I have this weird thing I do sometimes [a lot of the time]. I bead cameras. I call them my “Gala Edition” cameras. I take glass beads, rhinestones and other questionably precious pieces and attach them to cameras. I’ve been doing this for a while. Most of my friends don’t even know that I do it. It’s kind of embarrassing. When people find out, they’re, like, “You have too much time on your hands.” [(Which, by the way, isn’t necessarily true.) Ok…. side note: people say this a lot about my art. I can be exhibiting next to other artists who get comments like, “Wow! This is SO inspiring and original!” Me? Folks see art I’ve created – hand tinted portraits, pinhole photos, pinhole cameras, Gala Edition cameras – and they lean toward me, smiling … nodding, and inevitably say, “SOMEONE has too much time on her hands.”)] This beading thing is not an addiction – though I haven’t beaded a camera in seven days, sixteen hours, fourteen minutes and seventeen seconds.  I don’t do this for attention or the approval of others because, if that were the case, I’d do something else for sure. Anyway, here are some photos of a few of the cameras I’ve embellished:

  • A Miranda Sensorex, converted to a Carmen Miranda.

  • Detail of Carmen Miranda.

  • Detail of Carmen Miranda

  • Carmen Miranda: Everything functions.

  • Detail of Carmen Miranda

  • Detail of Carmen Miranda

  • Kodak Autographic folder

  • Kodak Autographic folder

  • Brownie Hawkeye Gala Edition

  • Brownie Hawkeye Gala Edition

  • Brownie Hawkeye Gala Edition

  • Kodak Autographic 3A Gala Edition

  • Kodak Autographic 3A Gala Edition

  • Gala Edition Box Camera

  • Gala Edition Box Camera

  • I made this Gala Edition box camera especially for Lightbox Photographic in Astoria, OR.

  • Coronet 3D Gala Edition.

  • Pretty in Pink 4x5 pinhole camera.

  • My Pussyhole pinhole camera.

  • Gala Edition 4x5 Hole-in-der pinhole camera.

  • Kodak Autographic 3A Gala Edition

  • Kodak Autographic 3A Gala Edition

  • Kodak Autographic 3A Gala Edition

  • Kodak Autographic 3A Gala Edition

These cameras function. I expect them to be functional, though not necessarily practical.

Click on the photo for more info about a Conley Kewpie #2 that has been transformed into a Gala Edition Kewpie!