Coined by the author John Koenig, “anemoia” describes nostalgia for a time or place one has never known. Increasingly, those of us who belong to Gen Z find ourselves digging around in past aesthetics in search of a lost, perhaps better, time. It’s one way to combat the existential dread of living in a digitalised, AI-dominated era.
At a recent birthday party, a group of us gathered around as a friend unclicked a thumb-sized gadget from the handle of her handbag. We were suitably impressed: the Kodak Charmera 1987 is a throwback to the company’s first mass-market single-use camera, the Fling, released almost 40 years ago. As such, it’s a retro device with a strong “live in the moment” ancestry.
The Charmera was designed by Reto, a Kodak brand licensee founded in Hong Kong; Alan Mok, Reto’s CEO, says they intentionally built something that would target the younger generations. So where the Fling was analogue, the Charmera is a pleasing blend of nostalgia and modern technology. It incorporates a digital screen but, as the display is only 0.96 inches wide, you have little option but to aim your camera in the general direction of your target, choose one of the 12 filters by playing around with its buttons, maybe squint at the screen in an attempt to get everyone in the frame, then press down on the shutter with a click, and hope it turns out decent. Compared with taking a smartphone picture, it is a gratifyingly tactile experience.