NOKCP (New Orleans Kid Camera Project)
This project occured in January 2007, while volunteering with Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans over the Holiday Break. In conjunction with the New Orleans Kid Camera Project, a not-for-profit educational program created in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, we put on a series of weekend pinhole photography workshops for kids aged 6-15. For three weekends we travelled to different neighborhoods, learning about, building, and taking pictures with pinhole cameras.
Prior to travelling to New Orleans for this project, I fabricated 32 wooden camera kits, each designed off of a standard two-sided 4x5 sheet film back. Every participating kid, young or old, built and decorated their own kit before shooting. The kits included threaded insert and thumbscrew joinery, and a big cork shutter on a string.
Each week, the film was processed at a local darkroom. During the final weekend, the kids were invited to the University of New Orleans darkroom to make contact prints of their favorite shots.