Hip to be square

Sam Cross finds a piece of photographic history lurking inside even the thinnest new iPhone

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I love old technology. I've got shelves and crates full of vintage film cameras, a record collection that would dwarf that of some small shops, and a love of old mechanical watches which borders on the obsessive.

Maybe it's a way to escape the evermore-dystopian state of affairs around us. Maybe I'm just a hipster. But there's a lot to love in those old bits of kit - the kind of build quality and longevity that feels alien in the modern age, and a keep-it-simple approach to problem solving.

It's a far cry from the modern world of technology, which can sometimes feel like a race to do things for the sake of doing them. It's something I've felt with the recent spate of slim phones, like the iPhone Air or Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. They're technologically impressive, sure, but who's really asking for a handset that dainty?