Photo essay Photojournalism

The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay “A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!” Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker

Sept 2015 back issue

by Lukas Birk & Sean Foley

Afghanistan is one of the last places on earth where photographers use a simple type of instant camera called the kamra-e-faoree as a way 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 Afghan Box Camera is a simple box-shaped wooden camera traditionally used by photographers working from a street pitch, who produce, by-and- large, instant identity portraits for their clients. In Dari the camera is known as kamra-e-faoree which means 'instant camera'. It's also less frequently called kamra-e-faoree-e-chobi (instant wooden camera) or kamra-e-chobi (wooden camera). In Pashtu the camera is sometimes referred to as da lastunri kamra (sleeve camera) because of the sleeve on the side of the camera that photographers insert their arm into. The camera is completely manual – it does not use electricity - and the photographic process is analogue: using chemicals and paper; there is no film. Inside the camera the paper prints are developed with the aid of an eye- hole on top of the camera allowing the photographer to follow the

development process, and by touch. The aim of the Afghan Box Camera Project is to provide a record of the kamra-e-faoree. We have archived and recorded the last box camera photographers’ work process alongside the comprehensive photographic documentation we have created videos explaining how to use and how to build box cameras and other techniques practised by the photographers. We have also created illustrated manuals on how to build a box camera. The step by step handbook has been used by hundreds of enthusiasts around the world as can be seen on our Facebook page. In 2011 Muhammad Usman, one of the old school photographers in Kabul, told us “Come back with a book!” His sentiment was echoed by every one of the Afghan photographers we met who shared a dream to have their craft remembered. Afghan Box Camera, the book, published in the winter of 2013, is the realisation of that dream. Combining images from the 1950s to the present-day it illustrates the techniques and artistry of a previously untold and visually enthralling photographic culture, preserving forever the story of the kamra-e-faoree.