Brownie In Motion – The Travelling Camera Obscura
You guys know me, and know I am not a fan of kickstarter and all that. But, sometimes I see a project that I think is definitely worth funding. And this is one of them. Brownie in Motion, the travelling camera obscura.
Stephen Takacs got in touch with me to tell me about his project and I thought it was brilliant, so I want to share it with you and hopefully together we can get it funded for him. It is a bit of a niche project, but one that is rather close to my heart. It is the same in Japan, so many skilled craftsmen of many genres taking their skills with them as nobody knows or cares about the old ways. I hope projects like this can raise awareness in the importance of these skills and how they should not be lost. Let’s hear what Stephen has to say:
My name is Stephen and I’m an artist from Columbus, Ohio. Last year, after countless hours of cutting, sewing and soldering, I finally realized a long-term dream project of mine; a gigantic camera obscura modeled after a Kodak Brownie that is equal parts traveling installation, portable darkroom and functioning ultra-large format camera. This summer, I hope to tour this project across the US, while shooting a new series of photographic portraits of artisans, craftspeople and repairmen whose skills are on the verge of extinction because of technological obsolescence. The paper and chemicals needed to make images with this camera aren’t cheap (nor is fuel!) so I’ve launched a fundraiser called ‘Brownie In Motion‘ on indiegogo to raise funds to help keep the project moving forward. Please take a look at the project campaign @ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/brownie-in-motion.
The campaign ends next Monday June 23rd. In addition to film, fuel and chemistry, with the money raised with this campaign, I plan to purchase some new photographic equipment (including lights and a portable battery pack), and the materials needed to refine our mobile mural print development system so that we can better photograph record the people and places we meet on our journey.
Stephen Takacs
I really hope that this project meets its modest goal and we get to see some results of this travelling camera. It would be really cool to see it go worldwide.
Check out the campaign and if you feel like it, support it too.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/brownie-in-motion
Thanks
JCH
i was curious about your Kickstarter comment so i took a look and you are right. They are all ‘I want’ or ‘me me me’ projects, which actually have no benefit for the community just the individual. One couple wanted people to pay for the honeymoon photos while they travelled around Europe!!! Most of them don’t actually need Kickstarter, if you want to create a photography book then there are numerous places online that it can be done at a very low price so you don’t need Kickstarter. I think Kickstarter has lost it’s way.