Camera familia. Cameras I've built and refitted over the years. 2019
Jeffrey Lim / Malaysia
- 2001 with pinholes & lensed box cameras, modifying and experimenting with box cameras and from. 2012-ongoing, i’ve built many different versions. Inpired from the kamra, lambe & minutera versions. I’ve developed different built types and techniques.
- Kanta Box Kamra, Kanta meaning lens in the Malay and Kamra inspired from ABCP.
• any special features to your camera? I’m not sure if they’re special, I’ve not followed the traditional design but understood the fundamentals of getting focus, making exposure, reproduction & printing. The Kamra was large, heavy, had a complex focusing & loading mechanism, with too many openings but it was most revolutionary in the simplistic medium, combining the craft of darkroom printing into the camera.
I wanted to overcome some of the built issues and strived to develop a light, mobile, self-contained, with secured focusing, paper loading, single opening, changeable lens, and using found and waste materials. I develop ways of reproduction, turning the camera into a projector / enlarger, and from visiting an exhibition of Brasil's Lambe-Lambe, developed new techniques in reproduction.
I think the biggest feature in my build are the focusing & loading mechanism, which is of a monorail design with rear tilt movements. I've got a working-camera weight down to 2.1kg (without tripod). Fully loaded as a backpack with 120 sheets of 3x5" paper and enough chemicals, lighting, flash light, several lenses with tripod, it weigh in just under 10kg.
The new range of cameras I'm developing will have multi-roles with detachable sections for portability and with the ability to be handheld, using waste industrial materials found with indigenous communities and rural plantations. I will utilise rural building techniques with found materials, make it durable, waterproof, washable and easy to build using simple tools. @ Brickfields
