Lukas Birk, Box Camera Now, 2020

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 home made, 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 his 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. With images by: Adrien Tache, Alain Paris, Aurélien de Saint André, Barbara Ghidini, Benoit Capponi, Cássia Xavier & Gustavo Falqueiro, Charlotte Guey, Chen Zi Wua, Clément Marion, Conrado Pinamonti, Low CQ, Damien Gautier, Daniel Robinson, Diogo Baptista, Ferdows Faghir, Flo Gales, George Papageorgiou, Gianni De Gregorio, Guillaume Koessler, Hans Zeeldieb, Irwandi, M. Fajar Apriyanto & Ade Aulia Rahman, Iris Chauveau, Jean-Michel Delage, Jeffrey Lim, Jorge Luis , Joshua Carroll, Justine Montmarché & Sébastien Bergeron, Landry Dunand, Leicester lo-fi photography, Luis Duarte, Maikel Plasencia González, Malcolm Hutcheson,Marc Kairies, Marie Chaloyard, Mauricio Sapata, Mehdi Nédellec , Michaël Mosset, Mitsu Maeda & Sono Aida, Oliver Zenklusen, Radilson Carlos Gomes, Rodrigo Abd, Steffen Diemer & Hannah Schemel, Tess Saunders, Thibaut Piel,Valentine Riccardi Every time one of these photographers unfolds his or her tripod and attracts cliental with this unusual object it’s a performance. Box Camera NOW also offers a small guide on how to build and use a Box Camera as well as literature references for those who are intrigued by the subject.