ODE TO THE DISPOSABLE CAMERA
Documenting With Disposables
In 2000, an American photographer visited Imbabazi Orphanage in Rwanda, post-1994 Rwandan Genocide. He created a nonprofit, Through the Eyes of Children, and provided a cohort of nineteen orphaned children with disposable cameras. The kids went out and documented the effects of the genocide that no photojournalist could ever replicate. These children, fondly referred to as the “Camera Kids,” were recording their own experiences. This CNN article on the project quotes the founder saying “I think as photographers we are trying to pay forward to the other kids who don't have the voice that we didn't have at the same age.”
WORD COUNT: 782
VALUE ADDED: CNN Link, Camera Kid Video, Disposable Camera City Project Link, Colour Box Project Link, Photos
REFERENCES:
Babin, B. and Harris, E. (2014). Consumer Behavior. 6th ed. Stamford, USA: Cengage Learning.
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Disposable Camera Project: Home. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://disposablecameraproject.ca/main.html.
Murphy, B., & Murphy, B. (2019, October 13). Humanity lost, humanity found: 25 years after Rwanda's genocide. Retrieved from https://thegroundtruthproject.org/humanity-lost-humanity-found-25-years-after-rwandas-genocide/.
Salaudeen, A., Nurse, E., & Munnik, J. (2019, October 21). They survived genocide, now they're teaching vulnerable children to heal using photography. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/rwanda-camera-kids/index.html.
Shoot blind with Colour Box Studio's Disposable Camera Project. (2019, September 4). Retrieved from http://colourboxstudio.com/shoot-blind-with-colour-box-studios-disposable-camera-project/.
Disposable cameras are more than just a current trend - they are a method of photojournalism and documentation.
The photo above is taken from this website page discussing the Imbabazi Orphanage’s mother and her role in the project. This video to the right is a brief snippet of a movie being made on the project and the significance of kids documenting their own experiences. Disposable cameras created the ability to document perspectives that otherwise would not be accurately represented.
Another demonstration of the importance of disposable cameras in documentation is the Disposable Camera Project.
The Disposable Camera Project has cameras hidden around the city - the goal is that strangers will read the little messages (as displayed in the image to the left), will take a picture, and will return the camera. While not all of the cameras are returned, the results of the developed film from the cameras that are left are incredible. There is a vast range of photos on the project’s website organized by city - “Brooklyn by Brooklyn,” “London by London,” and so forth.
The website states that it hopes that strangers will “capture moments that might have otherwise forever gone unnoticed.”
With this project, potential consumers have brief emotional involvement with disposable cameras - they pose for a selfie or snap a pic of their brother, but realize they will not see the photos unless they make it back to the project coordinators and are developed. It also forces interaction with the project’s website and social media - participants want to see their image developed and how their city is viewed by the strangers around them.
To drive the point home, here is another project based on disposable cameras: the Colour Box Studio Disposable Camera Project. This project is a little different from the last one - rather than relying on strangers to take your photos and collecting them, this is a competition.
Within those first 24 hours after picking up your camera, what will you capture?
The Colour Box Studio project has a need for cognition - within 24 hours, participants have to snap the best moments to fill the camera’s film & submit for the show. Once all the cameras are returned, they will develop the film and decide which shots to display in their exhibit. Fueled by competitiveness, some may even register more than one entry to have a better shot at getting the perfect shot.
It asks the photographer, professional or amateur, to analyze what is important enough to document.
Disposable cameras carry different worth for difference uses. Companies selling disposable cameras do not advertise them in any specific manner due to their product’s total value concept. Disposables cameras have value today because we as consumers give them value, whether it be through the experience of freezing moments as I mentioned right above or the convenience value as the Camera Kids project used them because they were easier for children to manage than digital cameras. The companies must value co-creation in the selling of their product.
I play a similar game with my use of disposable cameras - I limit myself to purchasing only one disposable camera each month. Half of this is motivated by my need to be cost-effective, but the other half is fueled by a similar question to the one above:
I have limited photos - what moments do I want to remember?
You can see from the photos cycling to the left or from exploring the photo gallery that the moments I choose to freeze in photography vary. Some photos are clearly you-had-to-be-there moments, while others may seem mundane - those pictures of my roommates studying or someone walking are the moments I want to cherish because they're what I would usually forget.
All of these projects or trends demonstrate word of mouth marketing for disposable cameras - the companies are not putting forth any extra effort to promote their product, but the cameras circulate themselves.
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Also - more photos have been added to the gallery! Go check them out, including the long awaited photos of my dad after he complained about my purchasing of the disposable camera (as mentioned in Blog 1).
