the disposable memory project

Despite a number of cameras going to the V festival this year, we hadn’t yet managed to get a camera into the hands of a celebrity, until now! Chris C emailed us today to let us know that he released Camera 211 in to the hands of Suggs from Madness. Chris went on to say:

He may have left it lying on the grass when he went to perform his set. Anyway, if Suggs didn’t take a photo, he made up for it with a brilliant performance on stage.

And there’s proof in the photo above. Well Suggs, if you’re reading, do let us know what you do with the camera!

Our Cameras are in over 50 countries across the world – but now they’re travelling to the underworld too – Christy H. has written in to tell us about sending her camera to Hell. Hell, Michigan that is.

This weekend, I was invited to a bonfire in the tiny town of Hell, Michigan and decided that it would be a perfect place to drop a Disposable Memory Project camera.

Camera 207 was left in front of the Hell Country Store. Hell is located in Livingston County, about 15 miles from Ann Arbor. It does, in fact, “freeze over” each winter, which is a continual source of amusement. Nobody really knows how the town got its unusual name, but two theories persist:

1) It may be a shortened translation of a German phrase “So schon hell” — which the locals claim means “beautifully bright.”

2) The more popular legend is that George Reeves, who helped settle the area, was asked what he wanted to name the town. He replied “you can name it hell for all I care,” and the name stuck.

Whatever the town’s origins, you can now proudly say that a DMP camera has been through Hell. I just hope it makes it to Hell and BACK!

We hope the camera has more than a snowball’s chance of returning home – so if you’ve been through Hell recently – have a look for the camera, and maybe you’ll manage to snap a few devilish pictures (enough of the puns already!) Read more about Camera 207 at the camera page.

Sally R. has four our of cameras, and is today starting her journey to Greenland to spend a few weeks out on the ice sheets doing hydrological research. We’re going to be following her journey as far as possible, and letting you know about the cameras which get handed out.

Sally says:

I have attached a Google Earth image of our trip, we are being picked up in Kangerlussuaq, and are camping out in the middle of the white bit next to a blue bit :)

We’ve added the cameras all starting in Swansea today so you can follow the journey, and as we know more about each one, we’ll post them to the site.

Camera 159
Camera 160
Camera 161
Camera 162

You can also keep track on the blog and twitter.

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!

We’re rapidly approaching 100 cameras! We’ve had a bunch of cameras released over the last week:

Camera 91 and Camera 90 in Taunton, UK
Camera 89 in San Francisco, USA along with a wonderful image of the Golden Gate bridge (pictured above!)
Camera 88 in Austin, TX
Camera 87 released in London, but has found its way to Barcelona
Camera 86 handed over in Glasgow, Scotland
Camera 85 released in Morro Bay, CA
Camera 84 released in London, but taken to San Francisco
Camera 83 handed over in Nottingham and winging its way to New York

Graham K, who dropped the Taunton and Nottingham cameras is currently travelling around Devon and Cornwall with a handful of cameras ready to leave, so we’ll be tracking his journey via the site. Kirsty S is currently in California, and has told us she’ll be dropping some cameras over the next week or so, and we have word of trips to South Africa, Canada and Japan from some of our community – so lots of interesting drops coming up.

Who will hit the magic Camera 100? Watch this space!

We’ve had a sudden rush of new cameras recently – you can see them all on the Track page, but 12 new drops since our last update post.

Three cameras have gone out in Denmark thanks to Thorir I., two released in London by the Project , one was handed over in Montenegro thanks to Peter H., and three in Glasgow thanks to Jon C.

Also, we made a mistake and managed to miss a camera which was released by Charlotte of Photo360 magazine back in January in Hastings, UK – we added this as Camera 74 – sorry!

And Camera 73 which was released on April 9th by Hanna R. in Frankfurt has been found and returned already – we’re waiting for it to come home via the post, but fingers crossed we’ll have some images for that online in the next week or so.

We’ve been away for a few weeks, so imagine the pleasant surprise upon returning to the email to find a bumper crop of new cameras to tell you about.

First of all SIX new drops from Jon C. whilst he was holidaying in Paris.

Camera 65 was handed over to a juggler outside Notre Dame Cathedral
Camera 66 was left outside of the Louvre
Camera 67 was left on the Eiffel Tower
Camera 68 was left at the Sacre Coeur
Camera 69 was left outside a shop on the Rue Saint-Honore
Camera 70 was handed over to a couple near Jim Morrison’s tomb

Jon also was the first to use our french instructions, provided by Lucy O, who very kindly translated our English version when dropping Camera 48 in Greece.

Next, Tom K. wrote to tell us about his drop of Camera 71 in Honolulu, Hawaii

I gave the camera to Pauahi, a native Hawaiian girl who worked at a bar we frequented in Honolulu.

Mahalo Tom, and we’re looking forward to hearing from Pauahi, who you can see in the image at the top of this post.

Finally, last night Matthew spoke to BBC Radio 5 Live’s Jamillah Knowles, from the Pods and Blogs show about what we’re doing. The interview is going to be live on Tuesday morning 2.30am (get up early!), but if you can’t quite manage that, it will appear in the podcast also. We’ll post it when it has aired.

Kris and Matt, the wonderful people who brought Camera 22 home last year, have released their own camera in San Luis Obispo, California, USA.

They say:

After taking a couple of pics with the new camera, Matt handed the camera off to one of the writers at the New Times newspaper.

Thanks guys! Let’s hope your camera is as successful as the one you found!

A bumper update for you today, so lets start from the top

Camera 54 and Camera 55: Dropped off in Peckham, London, along with a couple of shots of the drop.

Camera 56 was left in the bar at the Shaston Arms near Carnaby Street, London by me.

Camera 57 was handed over to Lea S after I met her in the Slaughtered Lamb near Clerkenwell, London. The camera has already been passed on and is making its way to Brazil!

Camera 58 has been dropped off in Bucharest, Romania by Dominique P, who also dropped off one of the really early cameras in Germany.

Updates from existing cameras which are moving around:

Camera 53: Dropped off by Jason T back in February, has been found by Rebecca, who picked it up from its original location in Cookeville TN, USA

And returning home..

Camera 47 is winging its way back to us. Linda G, wrote to us and said:

It started in London then took it to Thailand and Cambodia and back to Cornwall. Looks as if these are the in places to visit this year.

Clearly, our cameras are in the hottest locations in the world!