the disposable memory project

We don’t have many rules at the project, we let people interpret the project pretty broadly, and as a result get a wide range of journeys and stories back from cameras. However, we have recently had a camera returned by the person who originally released it, ie. it never really got passed on.

In the interest in openness, I asked the community for their thoughts on whether this camera should be classed as ‘returned’ and therefore added to the project as a camera. The responses were pretty much split down the middle. Half of the people thought that it was still valid, and the images contained on the camera still merit sharing. Others thought that it shouldn’t really go towards the camera returned count.

Personally, I’m inclined to agree. I don’t want to overinflate the returned camera count by allowing cameras which were released and returned by the same individual, else we risk multiple cameras just staying with a single person, and effectively just sharing photographs taken.

Camera 395 was sent to a journalist as part of Kodak’s agreement to provide us with 50 cameras (25 went to the community by us, 25 were sent to journalists across Europe by Kodak). I know for sure that it was passed on to the journalist’s children, but in any case, it was immediately used up and returned to us.

So, to keep things simple, we’ve added the images to this post, which you can see below, but the camera itself will not be added to the project as a returned camera. You can still see the camera details (as we have many cameras which are only with a single person so far) on the Camera 395 page, but it has not been counted as returned.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, do email or tweet us if you think this is the best way of handling this rare occurrence, or completely disagree with our approach.

Sar Friedman dropped us an email to say how much she loved our project, and wanted to get involved. Sar is already a massive fan of the disposable camera, and has taken some wonderful images. We asked her to write a few words about why disposable photography excites her:

I’m Sar Friedman. Music maker and disposable camera lover.

A breath of fresh air in a digital world.

I love the point and shoot aspect of disposable photography. I love the grain, the colours and the textures, which they are magically capable of achieving. I love the element of mystery and unpredictability – you never quite know what you are going to end up with. I love that if you wish to, you can awkwardly position the viewfinder right up over your eyes, like the good old days.

For me, the disposable has come to represent a bit of a rebellious approach to modern photography or perhaps a necessary accessory to accompany our digital pursuits. I find that carrying around a disposable camera keeps me grounded. Keeps me in a frame where I have to be mindful of restrictions that my digital camera otherwise overcomes intuitively… like considering the amount of light, distance, etc.

Similarly, with phone applications now including Instamatic, Polaroid, Lomo features and so on, it just feels so refreshing using a quaint little throw away contraption. It’s simple and basic, captures images beautifully and inspires creative endeavours like the disposable camera project! Pretty, pretty, pretty good!

Thanks for the thoughts Sar. If you’d like to share your opinions on disposable photography, do drop us a note.

Michael N has very kindly translated the instruction cards for the back of cameras into Japanese and Chinese, in case other people want to create cameras in those countries. We’ll be adding these to the site somewhere so people creating cameras can access the translations as needed, and we’ll try and do the same for more languages.

We also need help to translate our ‘found a camera’ page into other languages, so people who stumble across the cameras are able to understand more about the project. We have German and Spanish already, and Japanese and Chinese in the works. If you can help out translating the site into other languages, please let us know.

Dominique emailed us today to ask to create her own camera, along with these kind words about the project:

I have read about your project in a local freesheet. Straight away I thought it is an amazing idea. People move about and see things that can be never passed onto someone else, they can never share the experience with anybody- the disposable memories…I work in a photoshop and see hundreds of photos every day; photos that have little soul and matter to few people.

Your project brings back the uniqueness of every experience captured randomly and shared with those who believe their memory will return and will be seen by many.

Thanks Domi, you sum up the project so well, and we’re really glad to have you as part of our community. Looking forward to hearing about your camera!

Well, we’ve done it – in just over one year, we’ve reached our 100th camera – courtesy of Graham K.

Just left Camera with Jim, captain of the Phoenix, a two masted sail ship due to leave for Morbiene in France, next week out of Charlestown, Cornwall

(Thanks Dad!)

Camera 100 is a wonderful milestone to reach – and we couldn’t have done it without the help of our community of camera droppers. Between us, we’ve left cameras in 28 countries, as far as Nepal and Cambodia, East and West Coast US, Africa, South America, and all over Europe.

To help us hear what you have to say about the images, and to tell more of the cameras’ stories, we’re introducing the ability to comment on cameras. All of the cameras which have returned home, and some of the active cameras now have a ‘Comments’ tab above the list of updates. Click on that, enter your name and message, and we’ll add your thoughts to the page. We’d love to hear your comments on the images, and the camera’s journey – as well as if you know any of the people in the images or the locations, so we can build more of the story. Come along and say hello!

Monika A. has emailed to tell us a bit more about her Camera 93, which later this week will be making the mammoth journey to an Everest Basecamp in Nepal. We asked her about the trip she is making.

The Project: So where is the camera currently?

Monika A: Burgdorf near Hanover, Germany

DMP: And why are you going to Everest?

Monika: Generally I am very interested in foreign countries, their landscape and the people who live there. That’s why I love to travel.
Nepal – and especially the himalayas – is a destination that on the one hand I always wanted to visit – on the other hand I wasn’t sure if I would ever manage to get there.

When Jon and Chris (my significant other) decided to organize a trek to Everest Base Camp in Nepal as a photography and videography workshop it was clear for me that this would my opportunity to be part of a unique experience.

Did I mention that I am very passionate about photography? This journey is a great chance to combine both hobbies as the trek will offer the environment to take all kinds (and lots!!) of photographs. I am really looking forward to receiving many many new impressions, which may also push my photography to a new level.

DMP: How can we follow your journey?

Monika: You can get trek updates (on a probably daily basis) on http://netvibes.com/everesttrek

DMP: We’ll be following you closely, and best of luck!

Monika: Thanks – keep your fingers crossed that I don’t get altitude sick

You can read more about the project at http://www.everesttrek2009.com/ and of course, we’ll be charting its progress on our own Camera 93 page.

Good luck to Monika and the rest of the team. This may be our most amazing camera drop yet!

You may have noticed that we’ve had a little tidy up around here, and redesigned the site. We felt that the old design wasn’t doing justice to the wonderful images we have back from the three cameras returned, so the digital elves toiled night and day to create this vision you see before you.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the new site, but we don’t have commenting setup properly yet – so please drop us an email (details are on the contact page), in our facebook group, flickr group or send us a message on twitter. We’re all over the internets!

In other news, the project is going on holiday next week, hand delivering some cameras to south america, so apologies if you write to us and don’t hear back for a little while!

An update from two cameras today, Camera 47 and Camera 38:

Camera 47 has checked in after travelling around 12,500 miles already on its journey. Nicky G of Monster Munch has sent us this update:

the camera is back from thailand. it went to cambodia too, and around with one of the local tour guides to some villages. there were a few stories i heard. i’ll find out the details! it’s back in cornwall..

My mum had a brilliant time with the camera. She said it was great having a little project to do, and she met loads of people doing it. My dad got accosted by a lady boy in cambodia. I wish they’d given him the camera! haha

Wonderful stories from this camera already… although I’m not sure how I’ll explain some of the images when they get developed to the people at the photo lab!

Completely coincidentally, Camera 38, which was originally left in London at the bar downstairs at the Great Queen Street restaurant has also been to Asia. Andrew G who found the camera in London gave us this update:

I took a few shots in london and then I decided to take it with me to cambodia where I’ve finished off the roll. Will post it off when I get back later in the month. Hope the camera can stand the heat.

Thanks for the updates guys, and looking forward to seeing the images!

Great news!
Camera 5, which was dropped off in Berlin by Kirsty S, has been found!

Janosch E emailed us this morning to let us know he’d found the camera:

“I got the camera no. 5 at Starbucks Kochstr. and brought it to Lisbon/Portugal.
I took some pictures at Bairro Alto and passed it on to some australian guys.”

Wonderful, massive thanks to Janosch for letting us know about the camera and its movements, and congrats to Kirsty for being the dropper of the camera which had its first result. We’ve updated the tracker page so you can see Camera 5′s current location, as well as giving Camera 5 its very own page so you can keep up to date with its movements. By our calculation, it has travelled approximately 2000 miles (London → Berline → Lisbon) already!

OK – I’m sorry for focussing on London! I’ve already had a bunch of people asking me if they can do something similar outside of London – of course! I was literally thinking that I’d have to do all the camera seeding initially, but if you’d like to start your own camera bags – I’ll be adding the ability to create/register your own camera bags on the site as soon as possible. Thanks for the interest though.

Anyway – the reason for my post is that Nicky has suggested similarities between this project and 1000journals.com. Take a look, its a really beautiful project, and I hope we get something half as lovely and interesting going here.