The Last Box Camera Photographer of Kabul

6th August 2024

Seventy three year old Haji Mirzaman sits, surrounded by his family, in his tiny courtyard studio down a quiet street in Kabul, Afghanistan. Alongside him is a century-old “Kamra-e-Faoree”, or instant camera, that was once the principal tool of street photographers across Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India.

Until the Taliban outlawed photography of living creatures during their reign in the 1990s, Haji was one of dozens of street photographers who worked taking portraits of people, mainly for identification purposes, in Afghanistan. During the time that Western Forces occupied Afghanistan the Kamra-e-Faoree photographers crept out and began taking photos again, encouraged by an influx of western foreign correspondents and the lack of Taliban control. Time passed, digital cameras and phones became the norm, and when the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, the concept of box camera photography had already become outdated, forcing the industry to become relegated to enthusiasts and museums.

Box cameras in Afghanistan date back to the 19th century. A unique system of creating photos in one machine, they work by first making a paper negative and then by photographing the negative to make a positive image. The camera acts as both a camera and dark room combined.

I always remember the first time I heard about box camera photographers in Central Asia. I had become enchanted by an image I had seen by Steve McCurry of a Kamra-e-Faoree photographer sitting beside his camera in Kabul and I was instantly fascinated. This image, which now appears on the front cover of Steve’s book about Afghanistan, is surely one of the most iconic photographs to have ever been shot in Afghanistan.

When I heard about Kabul’s last box photographer I asked if we could visit.

Once upon a time, Haji Mirzaman would have set up his studio on the public streets of the city. These days he works mainly by appointment at his home. We arranged to meet up with him and he came to meet us on the nearest busy street, where he led us to his makeshift studio and kindly took some portraits of us during our visit. We were pleased to meet his family including his eager grandchildren who watched us having our photographs taken with great interest.

It was really interesting to see how the Kamra-e-Faoree worked. Essentially it is a large wooden box with only one fixed lens that has no shutter. To take a photo Haji had to remove the lens cover by hand and expose the paper for a few seconds, before he gently replaced it. On an average sunny day the exposure time is only a few seconds but on a cloudy day, the photographer needs to expose the photo for up to 40 seconds, often counting the time under his breath.

After we sat for portraits, Haji developed them inside the box camera and then we walked down to his small street store to collect them from his son, who continues to work in his family’s photography business.

Khaled Hadi

Perhaps the most famous box camera photographer was Khalid Hadi. He was just twelve years old when he took one of the only photos in existence of the one-eyed future leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar. Mullah Omar became just one of the many thousands of wounded mujahedin fighters that Hadi photographed between the years of 1992 to 1994. Oddly, the Taliban appointed him as their official photographer, a job belying the notion that the Taliban had banned all photography in Afghanistan.

Hadi went on to photograph construction projects until he eventually became dismayed by their control over the country. He left to go and live in the United States where he continues to live to this day. There is a wonderful book that has been released by Fraglich Publishing in Vienna called “Disasters of War: Portraits by Khalid Hadi” which features Hadi’s portraits that he shot from his home city of Kandahar. A link to the book on the publisher’s website is here: https://www.fraglich.com/product/disasters-of-war/

Wider Reading Resources

For our guests who are interested in knowing more about box camera photography, there is a wonderful website for the Afghan Box Camera Project, which was established by Austrian artist Lukas Birk and Irish ethnographer Sean Foley. A link to the project is here: http://www.afghanboxcamera.com/

If you are interested in knowing how box cameras work and learning a little more about their history, a link to a short documentary where photographer Qalam Nabi describes how a box camera works:

Visiting Haji Mirzaman was certainly a highlight of our visit to Afghanistan. The glimpse into his world was truly a memorable, once-in-a-lifetime experience!

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