User:Photographichistory/sandbox/Afghan Box Camera

= Afghan Box Camera =

The Afghan Box Camera, also know as Kamra-e-faoree (دوربین فوری) meaning Instant Camera in Dari (a variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan), is a simple wooden box that serves as camera and darkroom at the same time.

This type of camera was widely used in Afghanistan from the 1950s till 2010 and the advent of digital photography.

Afghan Box Camera is one term that describes a camera that has been used around the world; other names by which it is known include Box Camera, Afghan Camera, Street Box Camera, Camera Minuteros, Photographs de la Rue, Lambe Lambe , Cuban Polaroid, Instant Box, Minute Camera , Ruh Khitch and Foto Agüita. The name changes according to language and area, but the principles of the camera remain the same.

The terms Afghan Box Camera and Kamra-e-faoree, were coined and popularized by Lukas Birk and Sean Foley through their research for their Afghan Box Camera Project.

History
Cameras similar to the Afghan Box Camera, have been in use in many countries around the world since the late 1890s. The camera is a descendent of the Ferrotype, which itinerant photographers used to create memory photographs, especially in Europe and the Americas. . Early cameras produced in the United States of America included the Mandel-ette and Daydark. The camera had been adapted by photographers and carpenters, and homemade versions of the camera spread from urban centres to more rural communities. There is evidence that the box camera moved from the Indian subcontinent to Afghanistan as early as 1930. The 1950s saw a marked increase in the usage of box cameras due to the government’s introduction of photographic identity cards (taskira). This required an increase of cameras and photographers to meet the need. The ruler at the time, Zahir Shah, commissioned two entrepreneurs, Afandi and Ahmadin Taufiq, to train photographers and document the male Afghan population for the first time. A carpenter named Ali Ahmad produced a camera model that had been used by dozen of photographers and spread it to the smallest villages in Afghanistan.

As other forms of photography were expensive, the box camera remained the camera of choice for most citizens until the commercialization of digital photography after the American invasion in 2001. The camera was also in use during Afghanistan’s civil war period and the reign of the Taliban. Although the Taliban did initially ban photography, they later allowed black and white headshots of men for identification purposes.

Usage
The Afghan Box Camera is a simple wooden box that is a camera and darkroom at the same time. The camera was primarily produced by carpenters but was easily adapted by photographers to their needs. The camera uses photographic paper to produce a negative. The negative gets re-photographed on a holder in the front of the box. The photograph of the negative turns into a positive. The box camera was used in Afghanistan primarily to create ID photographs. It served as a cheap alternative to studio photography and was in many areas the only type of camera available.

The Afghan Box Camera today
Usage of the Box Camera, declined steadily after 2001 and they are now rarely used in Afghanistan. Due to the work of Lukas Birk and Sean Foley and their Afghan Box Camera Project, the style of Box Camera photography used in Afghanistan has received a lot of media attention,  and the release of an open-source online, on how to build a camera online has inspired many photographers globally to continue this tradition. At the same time, similar cameras have been in continuous use by artists and street photographers, especially in the Spanish-speaking world under the name Camera Minutera. .