a citizen photography project: anyone may pick up a suitcase camera, explore the neighbourhood and make one single photograph – of a cherished tree, a flabbergastingly ugly flyover, a market square, people …
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suitcase photographs made by participants of the project.
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once the image is in the box, photographers come back to the darkroom tent and help develop their picture (while we tell stories of early photographer-explorers carrying such tents, much heavier cameras and boxes of glass plates up mountains and through deserts).
the suitcases are pinhole cameras and very easy to use, even for first-time photographers (participants aged between 4 and 87 years use them with good results). moreover, the colorful cameras attract the curiosity of passers-by. some make suggestions of what to photograph, some sit for portraits, others pick up a camera themselves.
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photographer, assistant and darkroom tent (from ‘a history and handbook of photography’ by j. thompson, 1877)
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the project was an experiment that took participants and initiators in various directions: a) urban exploration by locals of all ages and backgrounds; b) people not considering themselves as creative but surprised by the photographs they make; c) pictures as starting points for discussing urban development, across languages and cultures, between laypeople and experts.
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suitcase pinhole camera portraits.
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exhibition of the project at the gemeinschaftszentrum loogarten / standort badenerstrasse (september – november 2021).
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la valise zurichoise is a contribution to about us ! (2021 edition) by maéva hormain and oliver zenklusen.
all images by anonymous citizen photographers.
thanks to gemeinschaftszentrum grünau, essen für alle, arche brockenhaus & bistro, gz loogarten, gz affoltern, vincent pearlstein and cédric steinmann.
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a flock of suitcase pinhole cameras.