EXTRAORDINARY IMAGES

Why Take Pictures of Computers?

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_Photographer Mark Richards

Imagine we could be around during the time of the first printing press. What would you want to keep for civilization to see in the future? This is one of the questions I asked myself as I photographed these computers. I set out to document what I saw as the visual elements of the beginning of a new era, the age of the computer, a time as significant as the age of the early printing press.

I wanted my photography to express the kind of passion that men and women felt when they were inventing these machines. More than just taking pictures, I wanted both the layperson and the computer professional to feel what I felt. To see these machines as more than steel and wire and plastic. To see that these are ideas and dreams and lives.

As a still photographer I can use only two dimensions, color, form, context, and a few other tricks. I must use them with my enthusiasm and my imagination, while staying true to the machines. My hope is that my photographs will allow people to see these machines in a new way. _Mark Richards

The pictures related to this article are from Core Memory: A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers (Chronicle Books, 2007), which features Mark’s photographs of machines from the collection of the Computer History Museum with text by John Alderman. Core Memory presents “a guided tour through some of the most notable and curious devices in the history of computing.” The book is available in the Museum gift shop or by contacting Jim Somers at somers@computerhistory.org. The price for Museum members is $30, including tax. The book’s list price is $35.