There was a time when street photographers were a mainstay in Afghanistan but, sadly, that is no longer the case today. In this video, Qalam Nabi demonstrates how he shoots and develops photos using a kamra-e-faoree, their version of an instant box camera. Find out how you can make your own here!
Kabul street photographer Qalam Nabi shows us the rather low-fi yet impressive mechanism of the kamra-e-faoree, from the framing to the focusing, to the shooting and developing. So old school cool!
How to use an Afghan box camera “kamra-e-faoree” via vimeo
Unfortunately, the kamra-e-faoree and its lensmen are on the brink of disappearing (Nabi makes up half of the remaining street photographers in Kabul) but the Afghan Box Camera Project aims to keep this art form alive. You can download instructions on how to build an Afghan box camera from their website and learn about its history. Try it today so it’ll still be around tomorrow! :-)
Visit Afghan Box Camera for more info.
3 comments
berndtotto
I tried the same technique with my more than 100 years old large format camera and it works quite well. A few results can be seen here: http://www.lomograph(…)experiments
dhartje
masfoto
simply Incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!