Join aCurator favorite Michael Massaia on a trip down memory lane with this new series, 'Saudade.'*
In my youth I loved amusement arcades, as did Michael Massaia. I guess my UK experience would have differed from the US - not much actual gambling allowed here in the States, so no 'fruit machines' as we knew them, and I'm sure British pinball machines featured far fewer semi-clad women... weren't they all based on American TV shows?
These machines were produced in the 1960s and '70s. Michael told me "I started working on this a few years back but I ran into all these technical problems when it came to shooting them. I had to modify one of my view cameras so it could get better depth of field at lower f-stops. I also had to use multiple polarizers to get all of the glare off the glass. It was actually very hard to take these. They are shot on large format black and white sheet film developed in pyro, and I'm making the finals selenium toned silver prints."
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
* a feeling of longing, melancholy, or nostalgia that is supposedly characteristic of the Portuguese or Brazilian temperament. - Dictionary.com