The Fascinating Process of Afghan Street Photographers

Photography Tips  •  Street Photography

Admittedly, it’s easy to sit back and take our digital cameras for granted. They are easy to use, fast, and convenient. Then you come across something that makes you remember just how easy it we have it sometimes. For example, Afghan street photographers–there are reportedly only two of them–go about taking photographers in a much different way. Using what they refer to as a kamra-e-faoree, which roughly translates to instant camera, the process of creating a photograph takes place entirely inside the large wooden box camera. That’s right, not just the exposure, but the chemical process as well. Watch the following mini-documentary to see how one photographer manages to make a living using his beloved kamra-e-faoree:

As you can see, the kamra-e-faoree takes a pair of ambidextrous hands and a lot of instinct that comes only with years and years of practice. That being said, the Afghan Box Camera Project has been established to help keep interest in these cameras alive and have even whipped up some blueprints so we can construct one for ourselves. For those of you looking to start a new photography project, why not give this a try?