AKRON, OH.- In a time when digital cameras and Photoshop reign supreme, the Akron Art Museum is paying homage to the simple plastic camera. This fall the Akron Art Museum challenged Northeast Ohio visitors and local artists to submit photographs rivaling some of the iconic photographers featured in the museum’s collection. There was a catch– all photographs had to be taken with a plastic camera. Plastic cameras can range from a toy Barbie camera marketed to children to the trendy Diana lomographic camera, which was first manufactured in the 1960s. Far from simple, these cameras are capable of creating stunning images. Photographers can tweak the film, manipulating the color and number of exposures, a feat even easy enough for novices.

Over 70 entries were received from Cleveland Heights to Ashland. Selected works will be on view in Toying With Imagination: A Plastic Camera Exhibition in the Akron Art Museum’s Mary S. and David C. Corbin Foundation Gallery, October 18, 2008 – January 11, 2009. The photographs fit into at least one of five categories corresponding to these landmark photographers: Diane Arbus – Freaks and Geeks; Cindy Sherman – Self-Portraiture; Ansel Adams – Landscape; Weegee – Life on the Street; and Warhol – People and Pop Culture.