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From photography’s earliest days, enterprising practitioners realized they could take their services directly to the people. This lead to the horse-drawn wagons called “Daguerreotype Salons” and then to portable, darkroom tents that allowed wet-plate photographers to make pictures outside. As technology advanced, the tents morphed into a single apparatus that combined both camera and darkroom, which allowed photographers to work anywhere. Afghanistan is one of the last places where street vendor photographers still use such a hand-made, wooden camera called kamra-e-faoree or “instant camera.” Observing this practice lead photographer Lukas Birk & anthropologist Sean Foley to undertake the Afghan Box Camera Project." -
Photo Technique Magazine introduction to an interview with Lukas Birk
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on May 9, 2012 -
4 comments
"Sometimes the hardest part of a story is getting there. Sometimes it is getting around. Sometimes it is obstructive intelligence agencies and soldiers. Sometimes it is lawlessness, sometimes overattentive law enforcement. Sometimes it is lack of transport, poor communications, power blackouts, accreditation difficulties or a hostile local population." In Cairo it's been all of the above. Stephen Farrell learns to pack a smaller camera kit:
New York Times lens blog
posted by Mister Bijou
on Feb 9, 2011 -
3 comments
What Cannot Be Seen. "This is an ongoing postal photography project. I mail matchbox pinhole cameras loaded with photographic paper to participants, inviting them to photograph 'what cannot be seen'. The cameras are then returned to me to be processed, accompanied by an explanation of what the participant has photographed." [
on flickr]
posted by chunking express
on Oct 20, 2010 -
15 comments
Ben Heine is a Belgian painter, illustrator, portraitist, caricaturist and photographer. His recent project,
Pencil vs. Camera, is an amalgam of illustration and photography, creating something similar in a single image showing two different actions. His
Flickr Photostream.
posted by netbros
on May 2, 2010 -
3 comments
Metaphotography. Dozens of photos of famous photographers with their cameras at the ready. Sometimes the most fascinating subjects are those behind the camera. And look at those cameras, too! (Text in Spanish, occasional nudity.)
posted by seanmpuckett
on Dec 26, 2009 -
23 comments
The True Love Project — People are exhorted to "say cheese" for the camera so their faces will approximate a happy look. Other emotional states, such as love, are far more complex and not easily photographed. Love is intimate and deeply personal, and its expression may be hard to share in a staged setting. Hypnosis opens a pathway into the unconscious, the neurological realm of emotional memory. In TRUE LOVE a group of volunteers worked with a professional hypnotist to reach, in trance, a point where they were able to visualize the camera as a beloved person. The resulting images captured people who were actually in love with the camera.
posted by netbros
on Sep 22, 2009 -
42 comments
Tokyo Camera Style "People who shoot film simply do because they choose to, and the Photo Culture of Tokyo is full of film camera users. When I meet them out on the streets I ask to photograph their camera, and usually post it here the same day"
posted by chunking express
on May 26, 2009 -
19 comments
Objective measurements of RAW images are an essential basis for any analysis of digital cameras, but such measurements were neither possible nor available
until now. DxO Labs has developed a new scale for digital camera image quality performance, called
DxOMark Sensor, to serve as an additional tool to help photographers rank and compare digital cameras. This scale is based on three underlying metrics, Color Depth, Dynamic Range and Low-Light ISO, each one tied to a real-life photographic scenario: landscape, studio & portrait, and photojournalism & sport. (This application requires Flash™ as it uses
FusionCharts.) Hours of fun sorting the data by the various metrics, including $$$.
[more inside]
posted by spock
on Feb 4, 2009 -
39 comments
"Good afternoon, I attached this camera to the bench so you could take pictures. Seriously. So have fun. I'll be back later this evening to pick it up. Love, Jay / The Plug". Stranger Photos Have Happened.
posted by nthdegx
on Mar 21, 2008 -
57 comments
As a photographer, you need to get close to your subject. But sometimes things get between you and your subject. Things such as state lines, restraining orders, and guard patrols that can keep you miles away from the people you want to shoot. What do you do at times like this?
Get a bigger lens.
[more inside]
posted by ardgedee
on Feb 7, 2008 -
47 comments
Science Daily reports that researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, in collaboration with scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center, have built a low-cost robotic device that enables any digital camera to produce breathtaking panormamic images called
Gigapans.
posted by Dave Faris
on Oct 2, 2007 -
25 comments
The Radiant Vista is a new photography site on the web that offers photoshop tutorials (in Quicktime and PDF) and daily photo critiques (Quicktime). Not much here for non-photographers, but I know a number of members have some interest in taking pictures and might find something good here.
posted by TedW
on Nov 15, 2005 -
14 comments
Kids with Cameras (warning, embedded QT video in link)
With an
Oscar Nominated documentary,
Born into
Brothels, under her belt,
Zana Briski's spinoff project,
Kids with Cameras, teaches children growing up in difficult circumstances the art and skills of photography to empower them to appreciate the beauty and dignity of their own expression.
With projects in
Calcutta,
Haiti,
Jerusalem and
Cairo, they send great photographers to lead workshops, the children are given inexpensive 35mm cameras to capture
whatever they choose and then the children's
pictures are shown (and
sold) around the world through exhibits, books and film.
posted by fenriq
on Feb 27, 2005 -
7 comments
Kodak Girl - Martha Cooper
began her love affair with photography when her dad gave her a Kodak Baby Brownie sometime around 1946. A professional photographer, for the last 25 years she's also been an avid collector of photographica. Her focus is on
images of women with cameras. Browse through
more than a century of historic photos, quirky memorabilia, advertising, toys, comics, movie stills and figurines - it's a fascinating site!
In her own photos, Ms. Cooper favors art, anthropology, and urban folk culture. Her colorful work can be viewed at
NYCity Snaps.
posted by madamjujujive
on Sep 29, 2002 -
2 comments
Could
this new digital camera technology finally spell the death of traditional emulsion-film cameras? According to inventor
Carver Mead, the X3 photographic sensor chip "delivers two to three times the image-producing power of today's digital cameras." Although not the first to try to bring this promising technology to the market place, Carver believes his new start-up company "Faveon," has made the breakthrough necessary to usher in the age of
affordable 35mm film quality digital photography.
link via techdirt
posted by lucien
on Feb 11, 2002 -
42 comments
Photographers: Consider do-it-yourself
lens repair - but remember those safety glasses.
posted by normy
on Nov 10, 2001 -
9 comments