On Photography

Lukas Birk, Sean Foley and the Afghan Box Camera Project

written by: Robert Hirsch

From photography’s earliest days, enterprising practitioners realized they could take their services directly to the people. This lead to the horse-drawn wagons called “Daguerreotype Salons” and then to portable, darkroom tents that allowed wet-plate photographers to make pictures outside. As technology advanced, the tents morphed into a single apparatus that combined both camera and darkroom, which allowed photographers to work anywhere. Afghanistan is one of the last places where street vendor photographers still use such a hand-made, wooden camera called kamra-e-faoree or “instant camera.” Observing this practice lead Lukas Birk to undertake the Afghan Box Camera Project. The following are Read more »

The Heyday

written by: Kevin Moloney

This is a sermon, so feel free to mutter an occasional amen or shout hallelujah. And like any congregation of believers, you probably already know some of the things I’m going to say. But we are here to reinvigorate our faith, so please be seated while I take the pulpit, thump the mike and clear my throat. You are living in the best time in history to be a photographer. It may not seem like it considering the ever-present industry bad news. But Horace Greeley, a 19th Century journalist and inveterate forward thinker once wrote, “The illusion that times that Read more »

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