Hilldale Card and Camera served Madison photographers for many years. This collection remembers the store and its staff: the camera counter and darkroom supplies, Canon bodies and Kodak film on the shelves, and the Hilldale mall around it in the 1970s.
22 photographs
Card & Camera StoreThe sales floor at Hilldale Card and Camera, the card side with decorations overhead and the camera side with camera displays, film and processing services and tripods lined up on the top shelf while a customer waits at the counter.Film Processing Envelopes, Dated 1979A drawer of processing envelopes from the camera counter, the printed notice about returned film still legible along the flap.Shopping in Winter Coats in the Hilldale Mall in the 1970sShoppers walk down an enclosed concourse in heavy winter coats, storefront glass on one side and stores on the other.Talking to a CustomerA clerk takes a call at the back counter of the camera shop, surrounded by stacked paperwork, shelved film boxes, and notes pinned to every surface.Tripod Repair, Camera CounterA young man adjusts a tripod head at the camera counter.New Cash Register Keys and Handwritten NotesAn IBM point-of-sale terminal at the shop counter, its display reading 50000, with a taped-on crib sheet of user sign-in codes beside the keypad.Canon AE-1 Program CameraThe Canon AE1 35mm SLR with a 50mm f/1.8 lens was a popular camera sold at Hilldale Card & Camera in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Hilldale Card & CameraHilldale Mall, 1980 - Card & Camera, Beauty Salon, Gimbels, Flowers.Keys of the Old Cash RegisterA mechanical cash register, its curved bank of round keys crowded above a printed paper cheat sheet.At the Camera CounterA young woman hands a 35mm camera body to a customer on the other side of the sales counter.Working by the Darkroom SuppliesA staff member leans across the counter at Hilldale Card and Camera, caught mid-thought beneath a wall with darkroom chemicals, photographic paper and other supplies.Cash Register, Snapshot BooksThe checkout counter at Hilldale Card & Camera shop, with a wire rack of photo albums crowding the register and a hand-lettered sign for snapshot books above.Black Canon FTb camera with 50mm f/1.8 lensA black-bodied Canon FTb QL with a 50mm f/1.8 FD lens was a popular camera sold at Hilldale Card & Camera in the 1970s.Card & Camera Gazette, September 1966A page from Madison's Hilldale Card & Camera customer newsletter, its cover photograph showing a timber chalet below snow-streaked peaks. The newsletter has articles on selecting enlarging papers, reducing red-eye in pictures and purchasing projector screens and electronic flashes.
Gimbels, Hilldale Back Parking Lot 1970sThe Gimbels department store anchors the Hilldale shopping center in Madison, its lot filled with mid-1970s sedans and a lone Mustang under flat overcast light.Kodacolor II and one Ilford XP1 on the shelfBoxes of Kodacolor II in 12, 24, and 36 exposure lengths line a camera shop shelf, with a single roll of Ilford XP1 400 out of place.Hilldale Parking Lot in Late WinterSedans and a station wagon idle past plowed snowbanks outside Midvale Blvd, the winter sky flat and colorless above bare trees.Taking a photo print order at the counterA young woman fills out a print order form at the counter. Negatives for the order are clipped with scissors.Behind the Counter, Camera ShopTwo clerks pause mid-conversation behind the counter of a camera shop, a hand-lettered sign for write-on album sleeves propped above the register. The flat indoor light and plaid flannel place the scene squarely in the late 1970s.Behind the Camera Shop CounterA clerk writes up an order at the counter of a crowded camera and photo supply shop.Black Canon F-1 camera with 50mm f1.4 lensA black-bodied Canon F-1 with a fast prime lens was the top of the line 35mm camera sold at Hilldale Card & Camera in the 1970sSix Boxes of Kodak Black-and-White filmKodak black and white Panatomic-X, Plus-X and Tri-X film stacked two deep in their yellow boxes sold in the 1970s.
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