In 2011 Muhammad Usman, one of the old school photographers in Kabul, told us “Come back with a book!” His sentiment was echoed by every one of the Afghan photographers we met who shared a dream to have their craft remembered. Afghan Box Camera, the book, published in the winter of 2013, is the realisation of that dream. Combining images from the 1950s to the present-day it illustrates the techniques and artistry of a previously untold and visually enthralling photographic culture, preserving forever the story of the kamra-e-faoree.

You can read a review of the book in The Guardian newspaper here.

You can purchase the book from the publisher, Dewi Lewis.

Researching the culture of Afghan photography led us over the Khyber Pass to the Pakistani frontier city of Peshawar in 2012 as we traced the stories of the Afghan photographers who fled there as refugees during the war years. Back in the sweltering summer heat of Peshawar again in 2013, and in the cooler winter months of 2014, the images and the stories we found inside this city’s photographic studios, in between samovars of sweet green tea, was the inspiration for this book, exploring a photographic tradition caught between the creative and conservative forces of India and Afghanistan.

You can purchase the book from Pix Publishing.

Travelling along the Grand Trunk Road from Peshawar to New Delhi in 2013, Sean encountered a senior Indian box camera photographer willing to share the tricks of his trade – in what in India is called ‘the minute camera’. Three more minute camera photographers followed suit – between all of them, they had been in the trade almost 150 years! The book explores the photographers’ fascinating, at times humorous, life-journeys and creative lives, from photographing the quotidian of identity card commissions to inspired montages with supporting casts of gods, Bollywood celebrities, foreign hippies, and Hindu pilgrims – since 1947 to the present day!

You can purchase the book from Fraglich Publishing.

Six Tricks is a light-hearted exploration of the magic box camera photographers shared with us over the course of a decade as we travelled along the Grand Trunk Road traversing Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Showcasing the playful side of the photographers’ image-making and drawing on the publications above as well as unpublished research, the book illustrates the tricks of the trade photographers used such as painting with kite paper, decorating with leaves, and how to expose multiple images at the same time. It also illustrates how to use and build a box camera.

You can purchase the book from Fraglich Publishing.