The only Photographer in Kabul?

[david baugh]

Thought you may find this interesting........

 

[DeletedAcct1]

Thought you may find this interesting........

This is POETRY!!

 

[DWThomas]

Amazing! Thanks for the link.

 

[Willy T]

Wonderful video - thanks for sharing it here.
Hmmm... wonder if someone has put up a guide to making such a old-school device, just for fun and entertainment.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Seems to me Joe van Cleave has a series on videos on making an Afghan box camera. There are a couple other videos about the cameras and their users on YouTube as well.

 

[Cholentpot]

Read title to the tune of 'The only living boy in New York.'

 

[Willy T]

Seems to me Joe van Cleave has a series on videos on making an Afghan box camera. There are a couple other videos about the cameras and their users on YouTube as well.

So he does - got it! Thanks, Donald

 

[Donald Qualls]

So he does - got it! Thanks, Donald

You're very welcome. There may come a time I can make one of these and use it to do collodion tintypes...

 

[pbromaghin]

Made my day, watching this.

 

[blockend]

Photography at its purist.

 

[Frank53]

I took this picture in the early seventies, maybe the same guy in his younger days?
There were quite a lot of them in those days.

 

[AgX]

The designation "Afghan Camera" provokes the idea that those cameras were only to be found in Afghanistan. However they had been widespread.

 

[removed account4]

thank you for the video link, I love watching masters with their afghan cameras whether they are in Afghanistan or Havana or New Mexico .. the wooden bit that dangles down below the front of the camera is typically flipped up as a copy stand where he wet and stuck the just made negative and rephotograph it all over again inside the camera making the positive print. ...

 

[Donald Qualls]

The designation "Afghan Camera" provokes the idea that those cameras were only to be found in Afghanistan. However they had been widespread.

Those were very common in the Third World for much of the 20th century. The designation as "Afghan Box Camera" is mainly because Afghanistan is the last place they stayed in regular service. As recently as twenty years ago, they were still seen in upland India for things like passport photos. Apparently they were seen in Cuba fairly recently, too (there was a gallery shot here on Photrio within the last couple months of a similar camera in Havana). Put a second sleeve in there and enlarge the safelight window, and you could pour, sensitize, develop and stop a tintype in one, then bring it out into the light for fixing, drying, and varnishing.

 

[david baugh]

I took this picture in the early seventies, maybe the same guy in his younger days?
There were quite a lot of them in those days.
View attachment 260989

Love the photo..

 

[tezzasmall]

The following link is a great site about these cameras and people.

They also have a book, linked to on the site, which I bought a copy of amd is a good read.

http://www.afghanboxcamera.com/

Terry S

 

[Frank53]

Love the photo..

Thanks, I took it with a Rolleiflex 3.5F on Tri-X
Regards,
Frank

 

[Kino]

It wasn't limited to Third World Countries; many examples of this type photography in the USA.
Some were paper negative, some were tintype; lot's of variety.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/fsa.8d26795/
https://www.loc.gov/item/2017761187/
https://www.loc.gov/resource/ggbain.02979/

 

[miha]

the wooden bit that dangles down below the front of the camera is typically flipped up as a copy stand where he wet and stuck the just made negative and rephotograph it all over again inside the camera making the positive print. ...

I was wondering about the thingy...It makes perfect sense now you've explained it, thanks!

 

[Donald Qualls]

It wasn't limited to Third World Countries; many examples of this type photography in the USA.
Some were paper negative, some were tintype; lot's of variety.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/fsa.8d26795/
https://www.loc.gov/item/2017761187/
https://www.loc.gov/resource/ggbain.02979/

And those were clearly well after what we usually think of as the tintype era -- clothing and cars make them look like 1920s to 1930s. There were still tintype portraitists around then, but those guys pictured were probably shooting dry gelatin plates and delivering the print later. And it looks like they had standardized, commercially made cameras, too.

 

[AgX]

but those guys pictured were probably shooting dry gelatin plates and delivering the print later. And it looks like they had standardized, commercially made cameras, too.

For dry gelatin, you would not need a towel and a beaker, and a sleeve, as in photo #1. But the holder for re-photographing is missing. Some direct reversal process?

 

[Kino]

And those were clearly well after what we usually think of as the tintype era -- clothing and cars make them look like 1920s to 1930s. There were still tintype portraitists around then, but those guys pictured were probably shooting dry gelatin plates and delivering the print later. And it looks like they had standardized, commercially made cameras, too.

Donald, tintypes were made well into the 1960's by street photographers. I remember at least one in a town near where I grew up, but I just barely remember him. Pretty sure he made his own tins, as they were very crude.

A lot of commercial cameras were made for tintypes, but were mostly sold by small concerns out of the back of magazines with "earn extra money" type ads. Buster Keaton carries a good example of this type of camera in "The Cameraman" (1928)

I wonder when direct reversal photo paper was introduced? Maybe these a few of these camera operators used direct positive paper?



Here's another sampling from the LOC with some duplications:

https://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/2016/04/anything-to-get-the-shot-itinerant-photographers/

 

[Donald Qualls]

Tintypes weren't necessarily collodion, though -- dry gelatin tintypes appeared in the 1870s and continue to the present via liquid emulsion kits.

A tintype would, at a minimum, require access for both hands to develop the plate -- holding the plate with one hand, pouring the developer with the other, and controlling the meniscus of liquid by tilting the plate -- while still inside the box, protected from actinic light.

 

[Kino]

Speaking of commercial ferrotype cameras...

Here's a mind-blowing document I just found:
http://members.aon.at/mlasinge/pdf/streetcameras.pdf

 

[AgX]

The "Daydark" seems the one I hinted at, the one from the first of your photos.

Great listing you found!