the disposable memory project

After 293 days in the wild, Camera 114 has returned home with 23 images from the West Coast of the USA.

Originally dropped by Kirsty S, who is clearly our most gifted dropper with an amazing percentage of her cameras coming home, the camera started life in the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Thanks to Jenna W for returning the camera, and Melanie for helping it get home.

If you’re featured in any of the images, or recognise the locations, please comment on the camera page, so we can build up a story of its journey.

We’ve just had two cameras return home and the images have been posted – Camera 150, which travelled around the UK last year, and Camera 210 which made the journey from London to Australia and back. You can see both sets of images via the ‘Returned Images‘ section.

This brings us to 21 cameras which have returned, out of the current 265 cameras in almost 60 countries, which is just over a 12% return rate.
We’re approaching our 2nd birthday in April, when we’ll be doing a retrospective of the most interesting stories and journeys from the project to date.

The images from Camera 122 are finally online. The camera, originally dropped off in Las Vegas by Kirsty S. was handed over to Jean and Daniel during a Tom Jones concert at the MGM back in April of this year.

The camera then found its way back to Ontario, and into the hands of Karin A, who finished off the roll – or so we thought.

When the camera returned home, the manual winding wheel which allows you move the film on after each photograph had broken, so whilst it seemed like it wouldn’t wind on any more, I managed to fix the camera, and found there were a few shots left on the film, so I took a few images myself (would you believe I hadn’t actually taken any images for the project until that point!) around London.

We dropped the film in to be developed, and when we got the images back, all of the scans were offset and screwed up. Something was telling me this camera was jinxed. Fortunately, after some careful manual editing and retouching, we’ve managed to get the images online.

The camera has been travelling for 138 days, covered almost 2000 miles, 2 countries, and at least three people.

Thanks to everyone who took part in the camera – and if you recognise any of the locations, please comment and let us know. Interestingly – I think this is the first camera we’ve had back without a single person being photographed!

View the Camera 122 images.

After just 32 days travelling around Japan and China, Camera 184 has returned home with a collection of images from Asia.

Originally released and left in Narita Airport, Japan by Michael N. in July 2009.
After travelling via Taiwan, the cameras came to China ending up with Ava who took photos, including the new Chinese Expo building.

Thanks to everyone involved, and the fantastic images can be found on the Camera 184 page.

Camera 160 and Camera 162, two of the cameras taken to Greenland with Sally R. have returned home this weekend. Sally R. took them to the Science Centre near Kangerlussuaq whilst she was working out there, and handed them out to the teams going out on the icesheets. Collecting two of them before she left, the images show amazing snowy lands and the work being done out there. Two other cameras are still in Greeland, one has been picked up, and the other is still at the KISS Centre.

Thanks for Sally and everyone who took part in the camera.

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 73 has returned from Frankfurt, full of images which are now online. Originally left in the Main Cafe by Hanna R, the camera didn’t move around a great deal, as Nina R found it almost complete in the same location. It goes to show that you don’t need to move around to get great images!

Thanks to everyone who took part in this camera. If you know the people who feature in the images, let us know, and we’ll update the site!

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.

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.

The images from Camera 38 are now online available for viewing. This camera is our fourth to be returned, as contains a mix of images from North London (see Archway Kebabs above!) to Cambodia, courtesy of Andrew G, who sent us this back.

The camera, in our reckoning has travelled 12,600 miles, so it has weathered well considering its journey. You can, as ever, see all of the images on the camera page, as well as our flickr group – where we’d love to hear your comments on the images, especially if you’re featured in any of them!