KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — Habibullah owns the last box camera still standing on Kabul's Char-e-Sadart Street. It's a classic: a battered, brightly painted box with a dusty lens at one end and a crude darkroom inside.
As recently as a year ago, Habibullah, 42, who uses one name, was one of hundreds of professional photographers who plied their trade with handmade box cameras, sort of slow-motion Polaroids using late 19th century technology. They stood sentinel on the busy downtown street, shooting mug shots of people who needed photos for paperwork at nearby government ministries.
But the digital camera has since conquered Kabul, killing off the traditional camera foree, or "fast instant cameras." The clunky devices are sidelined as anachronisms, except for Habibullah's gaudy red-and-blue model, which a few loyal customers still seek out for the moody, ethereal images it produces.
"They like their photos done the old way. For them, it's nostalgia," Habibullah said, wiping street grime from his camera as he waited for customers.
Reluctantly, Habibullah has bowed to technology. He has opened a tiny photo shop that features a Sony Cyber-shot digital camera and two printers. He still mans his post at the box camera outside, but he says 95% of his customers prefer the faster (and cheaper) photos from digital cameras.
A box camera photo sells for 40 afghanis, about 80 cents, and takes five to 10 minutes to shoot, develop and print. A set of four digital photos sells for about a dollar, and takes about five minutes to shoot and print.
Each camera is made from a wooden box with a 35-millimeter camera lens attached. Instead of clicking a shutter, the photographer removes the lens cap for a second and replaces it.
Inside the box is an entire darkroom -- paper, developer and fixer. After the latent image is exposed to a sheet of photo paper, the photographer inserts his hand into the box through a cut-off pants leg designed to keep out light that would ruin the print.
He develops the image by moving the paper through two trays, one holding developer and the other fixer, to create a paper negative. He then makes another exposure, which converts the negative image into a positive print.
The demise of the box cameras has been painful for men like Habib, a slender, energetic photographer who learned the trade from his father and uncle. Habib, 39, who uses one name, began taking street photos when he was 11. He took over his father's camera and shot images for 28 years.
