Antony Cairns

CTY Mavica Poster 01, 36 Vintage Sony Mavica FD series with image displayed on cameras LCD back screens, 2022
LDN Mavica 0119, 1 Vintage Sony Mavica FD series with image displayed on LCD back screen, 2022

Antony Cairns looks back through photographic technological history to produce 1024px images that live on a memory stick and can only be seen using the Sony Mavica FD200 viewing screen. Now considered archaic apparatus, the cameras and the images displayed become the work of art.

This ongoing series enables the cameras to become mementos of an unknown ‘city’, documented through obsolete technology that is currently scarce in the market. By looking back using outdated technology to document the present, Cairns showcases an urban setting akin to sci-fi’s futuristic neon-lit surroundings. The images have been colourised and solarised, reminiscent of various speeds from old film software. Ultimately, the project explores ideas of repurposing in an over-consuming society and provides a technological feedback loop where we question whether technology follows people’s ideas, or our ideas follow technologies. The cameras have been displayed at a 1:1 scale to portray these objects at life size.

Antony Cairns (b. 1980 in London, UK) lives and works in London.