the disposable memory project

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.

jon asked if he could setup a similar project up in scotland – of course! give me a few weeks to get the first set of camera bags ready down here, and once i’ve got some rolling, we can do them anywhere. the plan eventually will be that anyone can create their own bag, register it on the site, and then sent it out into the wild – i just didn’t expect a request to do one just yet! i’ll keep you posted when the first bags go out.