John Pawson on the Box Brownie

My father loved cameras and taking photographs. When I was a child in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had a Rolleiflex and a Leica. He eventually sold the Leica to send us to school, which shows how much they cost. But I think my sisters had the camera I love most: the Box Brownie.

The original Brownie was designed by Frank A. Brownell for Eastman Kodak in 1900. It is a beautifully simple object, with everything you need and nothing you don’t. It’s just a box with a hole in the front. That made it approachable, usable and appealing to everyone. It was taken to children’s birthday parties, it was taken to war and it showed that you don’t need a complicated camera to take a great picture. As a design that had a democratising effect on photography, it is a direct ancestor of the iPhone.