Imagine tedious work with the tiny pieces of a rotting camera. Now imagine this while classmates peer over your shoulders asking questions you hardly know the answers to.

Senior Isabelle Farineau experienced this and much more while working on a semester-long independent study for photography class last year.

It started when photography teacher Susan Oliveri found a nearly 100 year old Century Grand Senior Deluxe Edition camera in the back of her cabinet. “We found a camera in the back of the cabinet that was rotting and she decided to take it on.” “The project was unique and an amazing challenge for learning about the history and function of cameras.”

When Oliveri found the camera she showed the students and Senior Izzy Farineau was the most enthusiastic about the camera. They decided to make the project an independent study and no other student has done anything like it so far.

Farineau took on this long task knowing very little about the camera. “I took my time to figure it out,” Farineau said. “It’s a century old so I couldn’t find too much information about it. I spent the first couple of months doing research. I found a camera pamphlet from 1908 about aspects of the camera.”

A notable feature on an old camera is the bellows. On the camera Oliveri and Farineau found the bellows were rotting, so reconstructing them was one of the first tasks to complete.

On old cameras, the bellows play one of the biggest roles. As Farineau explained it, “In order to project an image onto big film you have to create space. That’s what the bellows are for. That way it can push in or push out and that’s how you focus. If they’re broke, the light won’t project right.”

The original leather from the camera was rotten and could no longer be used, so fixing the bellows meant reconstructing them completely. “I used what’s called a black bag, it is completely light tight, and a tougher cardboard material, glue, and I even sewed a little bit,” Farineau said.

After the bellows were fixed, Farineau started to clean the inside and polish the brass on the camera. On this camera the bed was broken. “The bed is the bottom part of the camera, when the bellows slide that extends so you can use the bellows,” Farineau explained.

After taking that out and cleaning it, she then had to fix the shutter. “The shutter was the hardest part. I took it apart and I realized that it operates by opening and closing so you expose light and get exposure on the film. It has to be fast.”

Fixing the shutter, however, was not as easy as it sounds. “I hit a point where I was working on the shutter and I sat there for two weeks doing nothing. I couldn’t align the gears and I had to use miniature screwdrivers and tweezers to fix the gears to the other gears.” Farineau said.

Farineau had a large support group to help her push through. “The class was really involved with me, it was a really cool process,” she said.

On the camera, the shutter was out of alignment and was slow opening and closing so Farineau had to increase the tension so it would open faster. After this she worked on the rest which involved fixing the viewfinder, cleaning the lens and putting a sealant on the camera so it would stay in a nice condition.

Farineau was impressed by the lens. “It [the lens] came out in 1886 it’s even older than the camera. It was revolutionary when it came out and was standard for years and years.”

“The lens produces fully focused and really sharp pictures, and is amazing to work with,” she said.

For the last few months of the project, Farineau experimented with pictures. There wasn’t film large enough for her camera, but she supplemented with photo paper instead that is nearly the same quality.

“The thing about old cameras is people think the pictures look old timey. It’s all about the lens, lighting, and film,” Farineau said. “You get detail, depth and quality that are individual to old cameras,” she explained.

Farineau said she wasn’t very good at math or engineering; the mechanics of cameras just make sense to her.

Oliveri is very impressed with her student. “She worked hard, she is very talented and obviously patient,” she explained.

Now that Farineau is finished fixing the camera she feels “more prepared to fix other kinds of film cameras.”

“I plan to do photography as a hobby, but I don’t want to study it as a major necessarily [in collge], Farinea said. “I intend to keep using the Century this year, as well as several other older camera models.”