MAGIC BOX

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The chosen box was a leather-clad wooden Kodak Bulls-Eye No. 2 camera. Not only did the technology verge on the magical, it could also capture memories and tell stories. I decided to make it my centerpiece and find a way to present some of its magic. To display the camera, I created a ring of wood and colorful hand-made paper to suggest its promise. I researched online images from 1890 through 1910 when these cameras were made, finding photos that captured the common and uncommon events of this period: Teddy Roosevelt as a Roughrider, Wilbur Wright flying around the Statue of Liberty, a gag photo of boy with his chicken, intake photos of prisoners, a Suffragette, and San Francisco in 1897. I created a three-layer canvas of wire mesh to present the turn-of-the-century magic.