Frame 1: Introduction to the Holga

You're perhaps eager to see the photos. This is, after all, a visual medium we're using.

Please have patience, and experience this project the same way we did, in that there was no instant gratification.

It seems that each step has been slow and meaningful.

First I taught Susan how to load and shoot the camera, and she shot her first photo. Actually, this is her second photo, as during her first shoot, she left the lens cap on.

You might think that loading film is a small task, but the Holga takes 120 film. This comes in a longish spool that must be locked in place on the left side of the camera and then carefully pulled out and caught onto the take-up reel on the right side of the camera. As a sighted person, I match what I see to what I feel to know when the film is at the right spot to close the camera back, and to know when and how to advance the film.

Susan showed a remarkable adeptness and willingness to feed the pesky film into an elusive take-up slot -- all the while talking to and coaxing the camera to do her bidding. We found we counted 'ticks' and 'turns' of the film take-up reel to know where we were.

In shooting with Holga, I often advance the film bit by bit, to overlap images one upon the other. Since Susan had not had this experience, she viewed the film as having discrete segments that needed to be exposed. She expressed anxiety at needing to know exactly where each frame should be.
I initially explained how the film fed out, and attached less importance to the placement of each shot. To give you an idea of how complicated the process is, here is what I had written for Susan in my cheat sheet of instructions:

"Place the newly opened film roll into the left compartment and hold it snug there while pulling out the leader of the film. You’ll need to unfold the very tip of the leader, which has been cut down to about an inch wide. This leader tip of film needs to be captured into the slot on the take-up reel which you put into the right compartment. To do so, while keeping hold of the film in the left compartment pull out the film across the camera until the tip reaches to about the farthest edge of the camera (I think that’s what we measured.) Make sure the tip is unfolded by folding it backwards against itself. Now that the tip is straight, feed it into the slot. Now while holding the film roll AND the film in the slot, start winding the film winder to take up slack in the film. One needs to get the film gripping sufficiently before putting the back of the camera on. 

By my memory, it took 5 ticks of the film winder to take out the slack, and 43 complete turns after that to get to the first frame. I would probably continue to do maybe 4 of the turns before putting the back on to make sure the film is winding properly."

Gee, can you stand on your head at the same time, too? Undoubtedly, this sequence of activities would be daunting to the average person on the street! But sitting there with Susan was quite an experience, as she stepped up to the challenge and conqured the film-loading process.

Then we encountered the problem of how to determine which end of the camera back was "up"! More on this later.