Afghan "Minuteros" - rudimentary camera building -

[Christopher Nisperos]

Hope it's OK to post a youtube video here .. This one shows a young Afghan woodworker building a "minutero"-type camera almost from scratch. This guy deserves a lot of respect:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-V3Qqx4Qpk

. . . and the other guy who deserves respect is the Afghan "Minutero" photographer himself, who has to patiently sit in the street waiting for customers to approach, "focus" the image by way of a push-pull rod, then after exposing the portrait on a piece of photo paper (no Ilford direct positive paper.. probably too expensive) move the ground glass out of the way (in the interior or the camera) to develop it inside the camera, then ... oh, there are too many steps.. Just watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEA-ihxK0Fk

After seeing these videos I was reminded of all the photographers (mostly the newcomers) who whine that they can't take pictures unless they have the latest Canikolympanasony. They ought to see these too, to gain a little humility. Instead of "Agfa-Gevaert", you might say, "Afghans have heart .. and give art!" (sorry ).

 

[patrickth]

Bought an antique 8x10 mahogany contact printer once off ebay. It was very cool Honduran mahogany, old school red bulb and cloth power cord. Plug it in and get a big time shock. Off it went to my saw to be made into a 5x7 tlr. Looks cool, but I was offered a very good deal on lenses, so they are now gone, waiting for another set to be mounted.

Thanks for posting the clip.