Here is a remarkable photography project using garbage dumpsters as pinhole cameras. The city of Hamburg has allowed it’s trash collectors to drill small holes into these portable bins that are loaded with large sheets of light sensitive paper. And the results are often quite stunning!
From their Flickr page –
Hamburg´s garbagemen portrait their city in the Trashcam Project – with their garbage containers. Standard 1.100 litre containers are transformed to giant pinhole cameras. With these cameras the binmen take pictures of their favourite places to show the beauty and the changes of the city they keep clean every day.
The Trashcam Project was developed by Christoph Blaschke, Mirko Derpmann, Scholz & Friends Berlin and the Hamburg sanitation department. Special thanks to Hamburg based photographer Matthias Hewing (www.matthiashewing.de/) for his professional advice and the challenging lab work with the giant negatives.
Garbageman Hans-Dieter Braatz is taking a picture with a 1.100 litre garbage container transformed into a pinhole camera. It will take 2 minutes of framing and one hour waiting. Picture taken by Mirko Derpmann with a fuji gw690 on Fuji Velvia.
The Speicherstadt in Hamburg photographed with a garbage container by
Hans-Dieter Braatz, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann. Shot on a 106×80 cm sheet of ilford multigrade with an hour exposure time.
The skyline of the Hafencity in Hamburg photographed with a pinhole garbage container by garbageman Hans-Peter Strahl, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann. Shot on a 106×80 cm sheet of ilford multigrade with six minutes exposure time.
Garbageman Roland Wilhelm takes a picture of himself and his trashcam with a second trashcam. Photographed with a pinhole garbage container by Roland Wilhelm, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann at the site of Hamburg´s wase collecting service. Shot on a 106×80 cm sheet of ilford multigrade with six minutes exposure time. Please show some respect for Rolands fantastic ability to not move.
The Marco Polo Tower photographed with a 1.100 litre garbage container by Michael Pfohlmann, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann. Shot on Ilford Multigrade with 10 minutes exposure time.
And here is a video, in German, explaining the project.
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