[swanky music] - Cameron Gillie: The Holga itself is kind of a happy accident.

It's referred to as a toy camera.

I don't really like that term necessarily, but it is fun.

[flash popping] I'm Cameron Gillie.

I'm a photographer.

I've been a photographer my whole life.

[shutter clicking] At first, I didn't want to admit it, but I am kind of a camera collector.

I've got a lot of cameras.

So, I've played around with a lot of cameras, and really, I keep coming back to the Holga.

It's a cheap plastic camera.

It's entirely made out of plastic.

Even the lens is plastic.

It was made in China in the early '80s.

It was originally like a flop.

And somehow, it got discovered by Western photographers that wanted to do artistic photos.

That it caught on here, and it's still being made.

To this day, you can still buy a brand-new Holga.

It's a simple camera, but it's not an easy camera to take good pictures with.

[sultry, melancholy guitar and Latin percussion] Because the center is the only part that's sharp, you're really limited on your composition, and the edges fall off, so it has this dreamy look to it.

It's funny.

Like, Instagram, you apply a filter to a straight photograph to get this dreamy look to it.

But this is organic.

Yeah, usually light leaks and flare and fall off on the edges, vignetting and blurry edges.

You know, you spend thousands and thousands of dollars to eliminate that.

This is a $40 camera that you just sort of embrace those things and just go with it.

I teach a class.

I do workshops with Holgas.

I wasn't sure anybody would be interested [cracking up] in taking a Holga class [laughs] but it was pretty successful.

Yeah, I thought I could help people avoid a lot of the mistakes that I made.

[shutter clicks] The Holga is really, in the end, my favorite camera.

[film sprockets clicking] It's a serious camera.

I've taken a lot of great photographs with a Holga.

I've sold pictures at art fairs.

Some of my favorite images are with a Holga.

So, it's not a toy.

And it's just fun.

That's the biggest thing with the Holga is it's just fun!

[colorful, upbeat instrumental]