A delightful little documentary from Lukas Birk and Sean Foley, How to use an Afghan box camera “kamra-e-faoree” starring Kabul street photographer Qalam Nabi and a remarkable home-made camera and phto studio all in one:
The Afghan Box Camera Project website is full of information and includes do it yourself instructions for making a camera just like Nabi’s
From their home page:
As of June 2011 Afghanistan is one of the last places on earth where photographers continue to use a simple type of instant camera called the kamra-e-faoree for means of making a living. The hand-made wooden camera is both camera and darkroom in one and generations of Afghans have had their portraits taken with it, usually for identity photographs. At one stage it was even outlawed when former rulers of Afghanistan, the Taliban, banned photography, forcing photographers to hide or destroy their tools.
The aim of the Afghan Box Camera Project is to provide a record of the kamra-e-faoree which as a living form of photography is on the brink of disappearing in Afghanistan.
H/T to The Presurfer.
