Joshua McHugh, Photographer

Josh McHugh, a friend of CCMHT, has shared these photos taken in Wellfleet with his low-tech Holga camera.









As a photographer of architecture and interiors I am often compelled to travel with cases of equipment, so exploring the Outer Cape with just a plastic Holga or vintage Rolleiflex in tow is a treat—simple and effortless, allowing me to focus on basic aspects of composition and the ever-changing light on Cape Cod. The Holga I keep in my beach bag is a good match for the elements thanks to its relative imperviousness to the inevitable sand and saltwater encountered during an afternoon at the beach. Photographically speaking it is a rather low-fi instrument, one with very limited settings that renders images on film with all manner of unpredictable optical oddities: vignetting, ghosting, light leaks… These uncertainties only add to the aesthetics of both the picture-taking process and the finished product, especially in this time of hyper-clear and instantaneous photos snapped by a phone. The “limitations” of the camera can be compelling, forcing one to interpret a scene with an eye to the camera’s narrow capabilities. Below you will see a handful of pictures I have shot in the wilds of Wellfleet. Enjoy them during these dark days of winter, and keep an eye out next summer for the guy with the plastic camera.


Joshua McHugh is a New York based freelance photographer specializing in architecture, interior, and design related projects. He is a Contributing Photographer for Architectural Digest, and a frequent contributor to many other national and international magazines including Elle Décor and Interior Design. He works regularly with corporate clients such as Knoll and Starwood, and photographs for many leading architects and interior designers. In the past few years he has collaborated with the CCMHT in documenting many modernist houses on the Cape.