For almost as long as I’ve been interested in photography and cameras I’ve lusted after a Hasselblad camera. It was always the iconic 500C with the top down focus hood.

This was long before I had much of an understanding about camera specifications or image quality; the Hasselblad just looked so awesomely cool.

It didn’t just look cool, the photographers who used it were the best in the business; Bert Stern, Avedon, Helmut Newton, Diane Arbus, Terry O’Neill and Sid Avery.  The camera was iconic and so were the images it produced; The Beatles crossing Abbey Road, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Audrey Hepburn, James Dean, and Elizabeth Taylor.

It looked different. Scandinavian sophistication. Sleek, modular and beautifully engineered. It looked sexy.

If I look back to when my fascination with these cameras started I think there are two significant influences.

I’m a child of the 60s. I grew up when the Apollo programme was in full swing. I was 8 years old when Armstrong and Aldrin set foot on the moon and I can still remember being allowed to stay up and watch the flickering black and white broadcast of this momentous event. There’s no doubt that this was the start of a life-long interest in space.

Later I became interested in travel and photography. I was an avid reader of National Geographic magazine. Growing up in a small town in England, this was my window into other, more interesting and exotic places and the people who lived there. And whilst the writing was sublime it was the photography that captured my imagination. The articles were about adventure and social documentary and the photographs were still some of the most striking I’ve ever seen.

The Hasselblad was THE space camera. After being chosen by NASA during the Mercury programme it first went to space in 1962 and a Hasselblad captured all of the historic moments including the Moon landings. In fact, twelve bodies remain on the Moon as only the film backs returned to Earth.

And where did I see those amazing images ? Nat Geo magazine of course.

But it wasn’t just the editorial images. The NASA connection added significant kudos to the brand. It frequently featured in their advertising in the magazine. This was a golden era for print advertising. Clean and stylish, the ads epitomised mid-century aesthetics.

It was seductive mix and I’ve wanted one ever since.

So how did I end up ‘nearly’ owning one ?

Fast forward a few years. My parents had a close friend. He had been in the military police during the second world war and ended up remaining in Germany for some time after 1945. He didn’t really talk much about it. He was much more interested in football.

But he did tell a few stories and when he found out that I was developing an interest in photography he casually mentioned that he’d brought a nice camera back with him that he’d ‘won’. In my naivety I assumed that he’d won it in a photography competition, it was only much later that I realised that he really meant looted !

It turned out that he was talking about a 500C from the sixties. I was pretty excited at this point because he was talking as if he was going to give it to me. Unfortunately, he had sold it when he was back in the UK. I’ll never forget the words, “You could’ve had it if I’d still got it.”

So I’m still just dreaming of owning a Hasselblad, made harder now as they’ve recently brought out some stunning digital models.

As a postscript. The other thing that the Apollo missions were famous for and also featured heavily in adverts in Nat Geo magazine were the Omega Speedmasters that the crews wore. I’m also a watch lover.

I’m still working on that particular itch as well !

I nearly owned a Hasselblad

Self portraits - practice and therapy