I came across Lucas Birk and Sean Foley’s Afghan Box Camera project a few years ago when a friend, Maurício, took an interest. It resulted in him making two cameras of his own and even featuring in a book about the subject. I’ve always liked the idea of making my own, but I have never found the time. Maurício now lives in São Paulo, Brazil, so it’s not like I could easily pop round to have a look!
Last year, another good friend sent me a link to Lucas Birk’s latest project, selling box camera kits. The kits look great, but I couldn’t shake off the urge to make my own camera. Since then, I haven’t been in the best of health, and so the build was postponed again.
The one good thing about being unwell is that it has prompted my early retirement – although, being honest, it didn’t take much prompting. So, two weeks from writing this (eek), even if I only work on it a few hours a week, I won’t have a lack of time as an excuse.
(Not my photo, from the eBay seller)
I want to reflect the spirit in which many of these cameras were originally built. So, I aim to build it as economically as I can and, where possible, use materials that I already have cluttering up my workshop.
Although a lovely Fujinon large-format lens would be a delight, I’ve settled on this slightly beaten-up Rodenstock Ysaron 150mm f4.5 enlarger lens that I managed to pick up for £19 on eBay. It’s not that different from the Soviet Industar enlarger lenses that were popular with Afghan photographers.
I’ve spent a few weeks researching, sketching in my notebook and reacquainting myself with SketchUp. I’m ready to start building the box itself; I think I have all the wood I’ll need. My aim is to be able to shoot up to 6×4 inch paper-negatives in portrait and landscape format.
I’ll list the materials I use as I go along; it may be useful to someone. Although I’m using most of them because I already have them on hand, not because they’re necessarily perfect for the job.
Apart from gathering these few bits and sorting out the wood, I haven’t done much. Hopefully, next time there’ll be some physical progress to show.
What I’ve Spent So Far
what
cost
where
Rodenstock Ysaron 150mm f4.5 enlarger lens
£19.00
eBay
3mm clear Perspex (ground ‘glass’)
£2.65
Perspexsheet.uk
3mm red Perspex ( red ‘safelight’ window)
£3.51
Perspexsheet.uk
Hinges for the lid
£4.90
Local hardware shop
If you’ve built your own box camera, I’d love to hear from you.
This is the first blog post in a series about self-study in general and, in particular, furthering my education in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography.
Note: My process of studying changed as I figured out what works best for me. The process I outline here isn’t the way I’m studying now.
At some point in mid-2021, I was feeling a little discouraged by not being able to work on the projects I’d been planning. So, I turned my attention to improving my knowledge about the field of documentary storytelling in general.
I know the structure of crafting a photo story, and I think my ethics are well-tuned; maybe we all do? Are my instincts correct? Is the way I tackle a project the best approach? These are some of the questions I hope to answer. I’m also interested in learning more about the history of photojournalism.
I’ve been working on projects for a few years; I’ve attended some excellent short courses, including the highly recommended Missouri Photo Workshop. But I’ve never undertaken any long-term formal education in the subject – a situation I’m determined to remedy at some point.
So, self-education, how easy and valuable is it in reality? I’m going to document my process for two reasons. Hopefully, it will prove helpful to others – even if it becomes a guide on how not to proceed.
The Start
It started a little haphazardly. I bought a few books, some good, some not so much. I watched Matt Black: The Documentary Commitment, which I would recommend, more of that to come. In the process, I have created a list of resources that I’ve shared here, which might be helpful. All good as far as it goes, but I needed some structure.
Then, something led me to watch the recording of last year’s online open day for LCC’s Photojournalism and Documentary Photography BA. It’s a well-regarded course and one I’d like to apply to at some point. I realised that on the LCC website is a detailed outline of the BA course. Could this be the guide I’d been looking for!
I have broken down the outline and started adding resources that seem to fit the various units of the course. You’re joining me almost at the beginning of this journey. I intend to add to the outline as I discover different resources.
Jennifer Good, the LCC BA Course Leader, and Paul Lowe, a tutor and highly respected photojournalist, have published ‘Understanding Photojournalism‘. The book chapters closely mirror the BA course units – I’m taking this as my starting point.
I’m going to blog – maybe monthly – so you can see how I’m getting on. (Plus, writing the blog will give me an excuse to not study when I need one!)
A few caveats I feel obliged to include:
I’ve only been working on it for a few weeks. As I go on, I’ll probably find that some of the resources I include would be better off as part of a different ‘unit’.
Working as I am is no substitute for guidance from a qualified tutor. If I had the money/time, I’d be applying for the BA now.
I’m not a tutor; I am literally making this up as I go along.
Method
It’s been a long time since I’ve undergone any formal education, and without a tutor on call, I wasn’t sure of the best way to proceed.
I started writing longhand in a notebook. Although I enjoyed the process of writing my notes, and apparently, we absorb more information if we write notes by hand, I soon realised I should have started digitally. Particularly as I’m still discovering how best to do this, the convenience of being able to go back and easily edit is invaluable. So last week, I took a few days to type up the notes I’d made so far. I’m glad I made that decision early in the process.
I’ve fallen into working by reading each chapter and underlining relevant sections in the book as I go. Then I reread it and typed up my notes. I’m using Evernote, although I’m sure any note-taking app will work. Evernote allows me to insert images, PDFs and even YouTube videos. There’s a free version of Evernote that does everything you need.
Progress so far
I started reading the book before finding the outline, so I didn’t have a structure set up. Although I’d read through a few chapters, as I’m not working to a timetable, I’ve gone back to the beginning, writing more detailed notes.
Hopefully, I’ll still be as keen this time next month so I’ll let you know how it goes. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, get in touch.
One thing I’ve learnt this month
I’ve always been a fan of David Hockney’s joiners, always imagining they were nothing more than wonderful collage images. I hadn’t realised Hockney was addressing the ‘problem’, as he saw it, of the passing of time in a photograph.
When you photograph a scene, you capture the whole area of the image at the exact moment (within fractions of a second). When we look at a scene, our eyes move around it, viewing different areas at different times. Hockney’s ‘joiners’ answer that problem; he talks about it in this video.
