the disposable memory project

We’ve released our 400th camera!

After almost four years (that’s 100 a year), we’ve reached our 400th camera – which was released by Alex L in Columbus, Ohio, USA – and then quickly picked up by Josh.

Thanks to everyone who has taken part in the project since we started, its an amazing achievement to have released this many cameras into the world, and we’re really excited to be continuing on our journey into 2012.

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.

We’ve started to recently add new features to the website, and will be, over the next year, giving the entire project a substantial overhaul.
Our first new feature is the ability to see cameras by country.

As every single camera in the project is geotagged (contains information on where it currently is in the world), we’re able to create maps of each camera’s location. We’ve created a page for every one of the 73 countries which our cameras have visited, that’s over 770 locations in total. Of course, this is based upon the last time we heard from a camera, not its real location, but I think it creates an interesting view on the project.

Currently, it just shows every single location a camera has passed through, but in time, we’ll be adding the ability to see click to a camera from a location, and other useful tools. As the project grows, you’ll be able to add your own comments to each location too.

You can find the location pages by visiting any Camera page. On the right, you’ll see a list of the countries the camera visited. Just click the link, and you’ll see the location page.

Here are a few examples:

France
USA
England
Australia

We’ve already spotted a few of the locations/pins are in the wrong place, so if you see something not quite right, just tweet or email us, and we’ll fix it.

And if you have any ideas for the site, just let us know, and we’ll consider all suggestions.

Released back in September 2009, Camera 219 has finally returned home after almost 700 days in the wild, travelling through four different countries, and passing through the hands of 7 people.

Started by John W. at his 50th birthday party in North Yorkshire, UK:

We met up with family in deepest North Yorkshire (Halton Gill), and boogied the night away to Bob Dylan and Basement Jaxx

The camera was handed over to family, who took it via Newcastle, and then on to Scotland, and back down to Hexham, England.

The camera was then passed on to Ruth, who travelled across the Atlantic on to Vancouver:

I received camera 219, from Allison and John while at Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey, near Allendale, in the north of England

Some months later, we heard about the camera’s whereabouts again in the June of 2010, as it had arrived at Granville Island, Canada with Justin S:

I snapped a couple of shots of the sun setting on the bay. A few weeks ago I left the camera on a 50 False Creek South bus as I exited.

Found on that bus by Jeanne H, it stayed within Canada, until it made its way to Seattle REI with Liz W, and then on to Washington with Ken, and finally to Karl V at the Stonerose Interpretive Centre, also in Washington:

It was discovered while the staff was cleaning up the center at the end of the day. We think it was taken to the fossil site with one of our families who went digging for fossils.

Finally returning home in October, 2011 – the camera has picked up a wonderful set of images from across the globe. Its participants are already commenting on the images, check out its journey at the Camera 219 page.

Camera 341, after 111 days of travel, has returned to the project and its 27 images are now online.

It’s life started in the Middle East, and whilst we know relatively little about how it began, it quickly made its way to the Walt Disney World theme park in Florida, USA with Carol J, the final owner of the camera. By the images it captured, it looks like it saw some impressive sites on its journey, including a visit to Petra, in Jordan, and the EPCOT Centre too.

If you have any more details about the images, make sure you leave a comment on the photo page for Camera 341.

I’d imagine there are few people on the planet who haven’t thought about travelling into space at some point – I know as a kid, I was fascinated by space travel, and still now as an adult, viewing rocket launches online, reading about the planets and watching Prof. Brian Cox’s Wonders of the Universe still blows my mind. After the almost three years of running the project – we’ve reached a point where space is the logical next step. We’ve released cameras which have reached the South Pole, Everest, and travelled collectively hundreds of thousands of miles – so the next challenge for us has to be getting a camera in to space.

We took a step closer to that this year, with Camera 310, created by Steve B. in Piedmont CA, which travelled on to Kazakhstan to watch the launch of three cosmonauts to the International Space Station, and was then handed over to NASA Astronaut Robert L. Satcher (or @astro_bones to his twitter followers).

We’ve yet to hear back from @astro_bones – but needless to say, the possibility of one of our cameras hanging around with the talented scientists and engineers of NASA, whether it gets sent into orbit or not, is pretty exciting. Check out the Camera 310 page

Camera 24 was one of the early cameras, released way back in August 2008, and today, after almost 1000 days of travelling, over 26,000 miles, not including the return trip to the UK, after passing through at least six different people on its way, it has returned home full of images of happy people in the sun.

Nick H, who released the camera, had this to say:

“Woohoo! About time too…”

Fair point, well made Nick.

The camera has travelled from London, and on to the Philippines and then Hong Kong, after which it seemed to return to the UK and lay dormant for about one year. It then was reborn, and travelled on to Australia via Indonesia, and finally back to the UK for processing.

We’re especially proud of cameras which come home after long journeys, whether in time, or across space – and Camera 24 has done both, so thanks to everyone who was involved in the camera’s journey. Please let us know if you recognise any of the people or places in the images, so we can tell more of the story behind the pictures.

View the Camera 24 page here.

Camera 110 has returned with a roll full of wonderful images from its 560 day long, 13000 mile trip around the world.
Starting in California, dropped by Kirsty S. (who is our lucky charm, many of her cameras have returned home), the camera travelled on to Mongolia, before returning to Florida before it came home.

Unfortunately, it looks like some of the images didn’t fair too well – we’re seeing alot of images which are taken indoors just don’t come out (I think most disposable cameras are ISO200, so don’t do so well indoors or at night), but those which have come out are great, including what I can only assume are some family shots from Mongolia.

If you can shed any light on the people or locations in these photos, do let us know!

Well, the unbelievable has happened. One of our cameras has made the most remarkable journey. A journey that few humans would have the opportunity to make in their lifetime. Not only has it travelled almost 19,000 miles, but it has travelled to the most extreme parts of our globe. Little Camera 159 is the camera which made its way to the South Pole, and survived the journey home to tell its tale.

It started its journey last year in Swansea, where Sally R. created the camera:

We will fly via Copenhagen to Greenland where we are being airlifted by helicopter to the ice sheets to camp out and do hydrological field work.

The camera then passed on to Sam D in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Two other cameras from the journey returned home at this point, Camera 160 and Camera 162, but our trusty little Camera 159 continued on south, to be found by Paul T. at the British Base at Rothera, Antarctica:

I was handed one of your cameras at a remote field camp called Sky-Blu at the base of the Antarctic Peninsula, whilst working for the British Antarctic Survey this summer. I took it with me on a project at the South Pole, and then returned with it to the British Base, Rothera.

If the images of Winnie the Pooh are worrying, don’t worry, polar bears haven’t turned to honey for subsistence:

I took a couple of pics at the South Pole – apologies if there are a couple of spoiled pics, but it was -30c and my gloved fingers were awkward! The giant Pooh Bear is another story altogether, but the image of a giant stuffed bear at the Pole was too good to pass up!

The camera continued on with Matt V.T. and then into the hands of Celine N, who brought it back home via Chile and Ireland.

We’re super excited to have been able to get a camera into the most extreme place on our planet, so thank you to everyone involved in getting the camera safely home. We hope you enjoy the images!

View the Camera 159 page for more details on its journey.

Camera 235 has been travelling around Singapore for the past 243 days, and has returned home with a batch of truly wonderful images.
Released in October 2009 by Shareen, the camera started its life at the opening of ‘thirtysix’, a local analogue camera shop – a perfect birth for the camera – there was even cake.

The camera moved around the city for a few months, and then we heard nothing of it until January of this year, when it was found again by Grace T, who finished off the film, and sent the camera back to the project.

Thanks to everyone who took part in the camera, and Eve T. for being our local project office and collecting the camera.
If you recognise any of the images, the people or locations in the photos, please add a comment to the Camera 235 page.