#62 Sammy, The Afghan Camera Lady

#62 Sammy the Afghan Camera Lady

Erik and Andrew are joined by the force of nature known as the Afghan Camera Lady for an enjoyable natter.

Sammy has a background in commercial photography but with the help of her local analogue photography group Leicester LoFi became obsessed with the Afghan box camera.

Currently Sammy takes her huge “portable darkroom and studio” camera to festivals and weddings to make unique “instant” portraits.

Bursting with enthusiasm and ideas for how she might develop her work Sammy made our life easy for this recording.

Things we chatted about on the show:

When Sammy lived in Leicester she discovered they had an Afghan Box Camera and decided there and then that “it was a camera to match her personality”.

www.leicesterlofi.co.uk

For all things related to these wonderful cameras you should look at the Afghan Box Camera Project Website.

This project was initiated early in 2011 by Austrian artist Lukas Birk and Irish ethnographer Sean Foley. The aim of the project from the outset was to create an urgent record of the disappearing art of Afghan box camera photography and make that information freely available online for all. Funding for the project in 2011 as in 2012 came primarily via crowdfunding on the KICKSTARTER website. The Visual Anthropology Dept. at Goldsmiths University, London has also contributed funding.

Afghan Box Camera Project

The discussion turned at some point to the “6 degrees of separation” that led to Erik being a co-host on the show so we ended up talking about the work of former guests Wayne Martin Belger and Jenny Sampson.

"The Beauty of Decay" Project (waynemartinbelger.com)

jenny sampson photographyJenny Sampson Photography jenny sampson photography, gallery tintypes

Erik is building a camera around an RB67 back and Mamiya press lenses to take an Instax Wide back – Friend of the show Ethan Moses has helped him a lot.

CAMERADACTYL

A man with a similar brain for camera design is Steve Lloyd of Chroma Cameras and you can see what he can offer you here.

Chroma Cameras – Unique 4×5, medium, instant and 135 format..analogue cameras

Last but not least it was Suffolk photographer and all round lovely chap Mark “Jimmy” Hickford who first suggested that Sammy would be a good guest for the show.

Mark 'Jimmy' Hickford (@jimmyshootsfilm) • Instagram photos and videos

https://twitter.com/Jimmyshootsfilm

LFPP links -

https://largeformatphotographypodcast.podbean.com/

ko-fi.com/largeformatphotographypodcast

You can join in the fun at our Facebook Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2296599290564807/

And now our Flikr group curated by Colin Devroe

https://www.flickr.com/groups/lfpp/

Get Twitter updates for the show from Andrew –

https://twitter.com/warboyssnapper

Or from Simon –