Blue Moon Camera and Machine in the heart of St. Johns will host its annual customer photo exhibit December 6, from 7 to 9 pm at four venues: 45th Parallel Wines, Revolutions Bookshop, St. Johns Boxing and Leisure Public House with late night live music and drinks at 45th Parallel. The venue addresses are available on the event website.
The storefront business focuses on a special niche within the field of photography that prefers analog cameras, equipment and methods. Blue Moon has customers around the world. Owner, Jake Shivery, explained that the business will celebrate its 25 year anniversary next year. He noted that the photo exhibit started 23 years ago when there were only three employees in the shop. As they developed film, printed the pictures and quality-controlled the thousands of orders throughout the year, occasionally an image would make them stop what they were doing and they would feel compelled to share it with their peers.
A statement from staff on the website explains, “It may be especially creative, it may be a perfect execution of technique, it may be touching, profound, or just plain lovely. And so we talk about the photograph, and we share it with each other.” That’s how the annual exhibit was born. When a majority of the staff comes to the conclusion that the photograph is extraordinary and ought to be shared, it is entered into Blue Moon’s end-of-the-year anniversary show.
The images can be incidental like a snapshot taken by a six-year-old of his father and baby brother with a disposable camera. Or they can be taken by seasoned professionals or even those new to the field of photography. What they all have in common is a quality that captures the viewer’s attention and imagination.
Blue Moon staff now numbers twenty five and the business has seen steady growth over the last 25 years as the preference for analog cameras has grown. Some photographers prefer analog for its unique aesthetic, its more deliberate shooting process, and the satisfaction of a tangible, hands-on workflow.
Staff commented on the website, “These are the folks that inspire us. These are our customers. At the close of the year we celebrate our anniversary with a show comprised completely of these unsubmitted, often unrecognized images. It is our hearty salute to the incidental art that happens to us all when we pick up our cameras.”
