Afghan street photogs succumb to d******.

[skyrick]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-camera24-2009jun24,0,6804391.story

Rick

 

[arigram]

I hope someone makes a good series on them.
And in film of course.

 

[Marco B]

Great article, thanks for pointing it out. And like Arigram said, let's hope someone documents them before they have all vanished...

 

[cloudhands]

i like how they speak of the "moody, ethereal" photos they took with their homemade cameras, yet they don't include any examples in the article.

 

[Mike Crawford]

i like how they speak of the "moody, ethereal" photos they took with their homemade cameras, yet they don't include any examples in the article.

There's a good example in this article from the Tate Magazine website.

http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue13/grace.htm

 

[Ian David]

The more things change, the more everything boringly becomes the same... (with apologies to the French)

 

[Jeff Kubach]

Interesting article. Thanks Rick.

Jeff

 

[Colin Corneau]

Afghanistan street photographers

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-camera24-2009jun24,0,6804391.story

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Threads merged.

 

[Colin Corneau]

These guys seem very similar to the amazing street photographers in Havana. They too use hand-made box cameras complete with little trays of developer, fix, and squares of photo paper...best dollar I ever spent down there.

 

[GJA]

Its sad. I would pay more than a days salary for a portrait of a random Afghan shot in this style. He should start a mail order business.

 

[Marco B]

These guys seem very similar to the amazing street photographers in Havana. They too use hand-made box cameras complete with little trays of developer, fix, and squares of photo paper...best dollar I ever spent down there.

Well, if Afghanistan had been anything close to a "normal" country, with which I mean a relative peaceful and hospitable place to visit, it is clear these photographers would never have run out of business. A steady stream of tourists visiting the capital would keep the business going indefinitely.

What tourist wouldn't have liked to have his picture taken by such a retro-style photographer with these beautiful cameras?... The photographers would be part of the local custom, an interesting thing to take pictures of, and take souvenirs from, just like a Dutch windmill, or Russian Matryoshka doll.

Now, for the Afghans themselves struggling to survive and make up for decades of war, it's just another piece of ballast to get rid off..

 

[thefizz]

Its very sad to see these guys having to stop what they love doing.

I had my picture taken with a friend while traveling in Peru a few years ago by a street photographer just like those described in the article. It was a great trill. The little photograph had such a retro feel to it that we looked like explorers from the 1950's.

 

[Colin Corneau]

I hope that Kiwi finds his way back to this photographer.

 

[dpurdy]

It makes me want to build a box camera. 8x10 point and shoot with fixed focus and guesstimate view. Or ground glass back.