How to use an Afghan Box Camera

Directed by Lukas Birk

Afghanistan is one of the last places on earth where photographers used a simple type of instant camera called the kamra-e-faoree for means of making a living. The hand-made wooden camera is both camera and darkroom in one and generations of Afghans have had their portraits taken with it, usually for identity photographs. At one stage it was even outlawed when former rulers of Afghanistan, the Taliban, banned photography, forcing photographers to hide or destroy their tools. In this film, Qalam Nabi, one of the last remaining box camera photographers in Kabul demonstrates how to use his camera.