Box Camera NOW
Photographs by various artists. Edited by Lukas Birk.
Fraglich Publishing, 2020. 338pp., 7.5 x 5.5 in.
Publisher’s Description
Box Camera NOW offers a unique insight into a new generation of Box Camera photographers working on the street and studios with primarily homemade cameras. These rudimentary tools follow a history of street photographers who worked around the globe in parks and on street corners, creating cheap memorabilia and first-time photographic experiences for the masses.
These Box Cameras have many names in different languages Afghan Box Camera, Street Box, Camera Minuteros, Lambe Lambe, Cuban Polaroid, Instant Box, Minuite Camera, Kamra-e-faoree, Ruh Khitch, Foto Agüita etc.
The concept is always the same: The camera, mostly homemade, is used as an instant camera on the street or in parks to take pictures of clients passing bye. The box is camera and dark room at the same time and uses photographic paper as negative and positive.
The photographic history books have largely forgotten these type of photographers as it was the image of the poor and often considered as “cheap” photography by studio owners. Likely by historians as the cameras are individually made and do not follow any form of consecutive construction.
Box Camera NOW encompasses 54 photographers from 21 countries around the globe. Each photographer with is own style and adaptation of Box Camera photography. Each one with his own unique ability to turn light and sensitive paper into a memorable object.