the disposable memory project

We’ve recently welcomed Jon C. to the Disposable Memory Project curation team. Jon is one of our earliest supporters, and he’s on board to help out responding to people’s questions, updating the site, and generally being super useful. We’ve asked him to introduce himself below.

Hi I’m Jon. I’ve been asked by Matthew to become a community admin for the project.

I’ve been following the Disposable Memory Project right from the very beginning when Matthew announced he was starting it on Twitter. I really liked the idea that pictures can tell a story, and with the project, one camera can tell a few stories.

I asked Matthew if there was the possibility to get involved as someone who dropped cameras. I have to admit that after asking it took me a year to make my first drops but once I started that was it. I made some drops in Paris while on Holiday and when I got back give some cameras to friends in Glasgow to pass around their respective companies.

Since then I dropped Camera 99 at Developer! Developer! Developer! Scotland, a Developers (If you’d not guessed!) Conference in Scotland. I wanted to do something a little different with this camera so I asked the guys at the conference to pass it about and finish it during the day. I received the camera back at about 9pm and sent it back in to the project..

More recently I have passed cameras on to friends to start as well as drop. Dave C took some cameras over to Bali with him and Zev has just received Camera 186 just before he leaves for a tour in West Bali.

I love the project because of it’s random nature. Everyone sees the camera as a part of life but I rarely give my camera to someone else for them to take pictures with. With the Disposable Memory Project I get to connect myself to other people and places and seeing the updates I feel like I’m travelling with the camera.

You can reach Jon at hello@disposablememoryproject.org

Camera 84 has returned home after a journey of 82 days and 5300 miles.

Starting in London with Matt L, the camera immediately hit the party scene, going for dinner at Soho House:

“I took it to a dinner I organised for Michael Johnson at Soho house, where lots of people – russell davies, matt jones, matt webb, alice taylor, et al – took pictures, before we gave it to Michael to take back to SF.”

The camera then hopped across the pond with Michael J, and the roll was finished off in Oakland, California.

This was also the first camera to use our increasing global team of Project Helpers to get the camera back to the UK for developing and uploading. Karen B, our East Coast USA local representative helped the camera on its way home.

If you took part in this camera, recognise the locations, feature in any of the images, or just want to comment on the journey and images – please add a comment by hitting the ‘Comments’ tab on the Camera 84 page, we’d love to hear from you!

Camera 97 has returned home full of images from the UK. It’s journey started in Lyme Regis, after a handful of photos being taken around the bay, and then left on the Cob Wall by Graham K:

This is the sea wall made famous in the film The French Lieutenant’s Woman.

The camera was quickly found by Susan P, who took a number of images:

I found the camera on the Cobb, I was on holiday at the time in Dorset. The dog is Molly in the cottage where we stayed. The children are 2 of my grandchildren at home in West Yorks. The young lady is a colleague in front of our Centenary Tapestry in Horbury, well worth a viewing!! Finally the Catherdral is Wakefield Cathedral.

Moving North with Susan P, the camera found its way to RSPB Bempton Cliffs in Bridlington, North Humberside, where it was found by Robert D, and then Daphne P. who eventually returned the film home for development.

Both Graham and Susan have commented on the camera to tell us more about the images. You can have a look at the pictures and comments at the Camera 97 page. Please add a comment if you know anything about this camera’s journey.

Andrew G, who returned Camera 38, has told us a little more about the images from his camera:

The camera I sent you before is a mixed bag of shots. There’s the visit to the strange performance with backstage antics at the Boston Arms, then the drunken walk home shooting skulking cats and abandoned fridges. There’s a couple of my teething baby with her old Fisher Price camera.

The visit to Cambodia was work. I was DP for a doc called Manin, about an orphan growing up in Pom Pehn. I shot most of the images riding about in a Tuk Tuk because I was shooting video constantly the rest of the time.

One or two of the visit to the orphanage are special. I snapped these at sunset on the last day of shooting. Some of the kids were flicking the light from the sun at each other with little vanity mirrors.
One of the children, I called her Zami (the little girl in red pajamas) decided to start shining the light into my eyes from across the yard. So I played a along by dodging in and out of the pillars to hide and snapped the last couple of shots on the roll as I did so. The little girl’s parents had died in a housefire two weeks before but she was so full of life you couldn’t help liking her.

She was always laughing or sharing a visual joke like this ( I couldn’t speak Khmer nor she English ) and we’d become quite good friends on my frequent visits there to shoot.
So I find that shot of her very poignant and beautiful.

Andrew has also recently returned from North America and dropped a number of new cameras for us: Camera 119 and Camera 120.

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!

Our recent drop of Camera 88 in Austin, Texas has created a flurry of activity, and is about to return home. Dan A. found the camera on the same day it was dropped, and took it on to a party just a short distance away, where he handed it over to Cassie F. Both checked in with us, and told us about the cameras.

Dan said:

Me and a friend luckily were on our way to the annual Eeyore’s Birthday celebration at Pease Park which I was sure would make for some EXTREMELY interesting photographs!!

Cassie agreed:

Dan came up to me and my friend at Eeyore’s birthday to take a picture of us (we were painted head to toe in silver and gold paint)

Interesting indeed, and if the images on Flickr of the Eeyore’s Birthday festival in Austin are anything to go by, they certainly will be great pictures – check out some of the festivities here – http://www.flickr.com/photos/birzer/sets/72157617230826287/

Mark S., who originally dropped the camera, is also an amazingly talented photographer, and some of his work can be seen at his photoblog – http://londonrubbish.com/

Thanks to Dan, Cassie and Mark for being involved in this camera.

Andrew G. of has commented on some of his images from Camera 38:

Really like some of the pictures I took. Particularly the little girl with the mirror at the orphanage. She was such a happy little soul, despite her parents dying in a house fire some weeks earlier.

One of the most interesting aspects of the project is the story behind the images. Whilst the film we get back is wonderful in itself, the characters and places they have visited are the really interesting aspect of the concept. The site currently doesn’t allow you or the photographers to explain the stories behind the images, and that’s something we’re looking to change as soon as possible, but in the meantime, we’ll be featuring what we know about the images via the blog.

We’d love to hear from you, if you took any photos about who feature in the images, where you took the photo, and any stories from the cameras’ journey. Let us help turn the disposable into lasting documentary.

Nicky G. has written in to tell us about the camera which we sent her earlier in January:

It went to Cornwall and back, but the seal wasn’t broken, as we didn’t meet any other humans during those three days. I was tempted to leave it down at the beach but i thought the sea spray might finish it!

So it’s on it’s merry way ( well arrived by now ) on a trip to Thailand, and possibly Cambodia. We’ll see.

The first photo is of me and my dad playing table football in Kick bar. So not too tropical a start. But i reckon there’ll be some winter sun action soon. My Mum knows a Burmese lady that they usually meet up with, so it may well end up with her for a bit. Interesting to see where it goes.

Very tropical indeed, here’s hoping we hear back from Camera 47, which has been added to the tracker and maps. Nicky runs the excellent http://www.monster-munch.com site, which is chocked full of lovely things, not least sock monsters. Go say hello.

Camera 29:021_25A, originally uploaded by Disposable Memory Project.

We’ve had an email from Mike, who found Camera 29 after its drop in Venice Beach. He’s provided us a bit more information about the first and second images on the roll:

My name’s mike I found the camera on a park bench along the water at Venice Beach. My dad was in town from TX and he and I were doing a long bike ride from Pacific Palisades to Hollywood. The first pic is of the two of us. He was very intrigued by the project.

I took a picture of my rabbit Buddy Hollywood, then dropped the camera off at my group art show in Pasadena that night. Someone else took pix of the show.

What a great idea, I am so pleased it worked out!

Thanks for the update Mike, and if you know any of the people in the other images from Camera 29, please let us know.

Update: Mike sent us even more info about the later pictures on the roll, and its journey:

Btw The camera made it from Venice, ca to pasadena, ca then it made it’s way almost to the state line. Those windmills are on the way to palm springs.