"Photography is important to me," Arbabzadeh tells RFE/RL. In the western Afghan city of Herat, 50-year-old photographer Hekmatullah Arbabzadeh also regrets the disappearance of the kamra-e-faoree from Afghan culture.Īn avid photographer since he was 13, Arbabzadeh learned how to use the box camera from an elderly master in the early 1980s.īut he also can no longer find the special photo paper once produced abundantly in India, Russia, and China. When it is gone, I will say, 'God bless you.'" Museum Dream "I am the last because I still have the materials and some of the photo paper, which isn't made anymore," Mirzaman says. He says the spare parts and the right type of photo paper are nowhere to be found. "Now, with photography digitized, the karma-e-faoree has disappeared." "There used to be a lot of these cameras here, more than 500 of them," Mirzaman says. "Who else still uses the kamra-e-faoree? Nobody uses these cameras anymore," Mirzaman tells RFE/RL sadly. He shoots about 30 portraits a year in the courtyard outside his home, where the sun serves as his lighting. In semiretirement, with his old studio closed, he now works only by appointment. Mirzaman is the last kamra-e-faoree photographer still working in Kabul - and possibly in Afghanistan. Haji Mirzaman, Kabul's last professional box-camera photographer.
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