German Garbagemen Turn a Giant Lens on Their City
Garbageman Hans-Dieter Braatz sets up a photo with a pinhole camera fashioned out of a garbage dumpster. Photo by Mirko Derpmann
One group of amateur photographers (and professional garbage men) in Hamburg, Germany wanted to showcase their perspective of the city every day and so the men amazingly created old-fashioned pinhole cameras out of large rolling trash dumpsters.
Photographer Hans-Dieter Braatz says: “It is the oldest and simplest camera design in the world…”. “To turn a garbage can into a camera, you only have a tiny hole drilled purely forward and hang a large sheet of photo paper inside the back. Is finished, the huge, rolling pinhole camera”.
The Hamburg fun fair photographed with a trash dumpster pinhole camera. Photo by Bernd Leguttky, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann
The images, which sometimes take one hour to obtain full exposure, are now referred to as The Trashcan Project and each showcase the men’s special lens on their city each day. More of the group’s beautiful black and white images can be seen and enjoyed on the group’s Flickr page.
The Marco Polo Tower in Hamburg, Germany, photographed with a trash dumpster pinhole camera. Photo by Michael Pfohlmann, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann
The Fleetschloss in Hamburg, Germany, photgraphed with a trash dumpster pinhole camera. Photo by Hans-Dieter Braatz, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann via Treehugger
THE ACCESSIBLE CITY 