This is the 2x2x2 meter Camera!
Now, where should I start to explain this project… First of all, I know the guys behind the Cubestories project (www.cubestories.com). I know how they work and how hard it has been and still is to realize their vision. It all started years ago when they heard Ilford would stop to produce the famous Ilfochrome (Cibachrome) paper. They decided to buy the last 16 rolls and built this special cube camera obscura to be able to shoot 1×1 meter pictures in direct positive. So every picture you take is a one of a kind! But don’t think that it is a sort of giant Polaroid camera. Unlike the Polaroid pictures the results on the Ilfochrome are of astonishing high quality and astonishing durability (more about it on Wikipedia). Plus, they are the first guys shooting reportage outdoor (with such a huge camera)! The presentation can be read on Cubestories.com (Click here). And some press about the Cubestories project can be read on ThePhoBlographer, DamnMagazine, Photoscala, Repubblica.
Help them to survive…
Now what happened is that they discovered that most of these Ilford rolls are expired or will expire soon. Therefore they have to shoot all the 16 rolls (about 300 pictures) this year to avoid major color shifting. And there is no way to complain with Ilford Switzerland because well, they went bankrupt (Source: Wikipedia). There is also no time for finding sponsors to cover just the travel and development costs. So they asked me to help them. So here we are!
Help them to die in glory…
It’s important to know this is a unique and one time project. Also every penny that they will earn will cover the pure high material costs which are as high as $26,000 (paper and development). Something that will be impossible to repeat in the future because there is simply no more of that special paper to buy anymore. If you like the project just donate or buy one of the pictures you find below. You will support the project to survive until its natural death in dignity 🙂
How to support the project:
1) With a one time donation of $10 you can (if you want) get your name on the official Cubestories Supporter page:
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2) You can buy one of these five limited edition prints for $150. These are the pictures of the cube (not taken by the cube). Only 25 prints per picture are available and are numbered and signed by the Photographers (Martinelli,Pizzini,Salvà) who built the camera. These are 30×30 centimeter (unframed) high quality ink prints that will be shipped in rolls within 3-4 weeks of the purchase. Click on the image to enlarge. Every picture has a history you can read here: http://www.cubestories.com/cube/.
Buy option is at the end of the picture list:
Note: You can buy more pictures but only one at a time because PayPal doesn’t offer the possibility to select more than one picture for every purchase.
3) On special request you can visit the Photographers in Merano (Italy) to get photographed (or take a photo of your wish) with the camera. Contact them here: cubephotographers@gmail.com.
Disclosure by SAR and Amonsul VOF:
The money will be collected by Amonsul VOF from (Belgium). They will use all the donations to cover the pure material expenses necessary to realize the 300 pictures (paper and development). SonyAlphaRumors supports the project for pure passion reasons only. I saw them at work, I know how hard it is to get a picture with that thing. Those guys deserve to finish the project!
Andrea (sonyalpharumors),
Supported by Ale (43rumors), Patrick (fujirumors) and Stefan (canonwatch).
0 Responses
They should not have bought all that film or should have dumped them.
No, I do not particularly find this worth a donation. 🙁
what you don’t see is, that the death of analogue film is a tragedy. there is no sensor capable of what these film sheets can.
and why dump something that is not only in fully functional condition, but increadebly valuable and rare.
it’s the same mentality as to throw away your iphone 4, just because you want an iphone 5, with the difference that there are still millions of iphones around the world.
our throw-away-society sickens me !
I still shoot with film and even antique ones. It is my responsibility to figure out if everything is in place so that I can use it. If you want minimal waste you have to do colloidion process on glass plates (and reuse the plates). 🙂
This is just some intermediate technology that became obsolete and is now being touted as something extraordinarily special. BTW, the original chemical formulations for developing this film was discontinued (due to environmental hazards) and replaced with the last discontinued ones. Some (who remember) still think the old formulations gave the top results.
It’s not a donation if they are selling interested persons a print.
Very cool pics, but I’m cheap so there you go.
I totally support this project. This is impressive, congrats to those guys
Why isn’t a museum or historical society stepping in to fund this project?
They probably looked at the photos… Sorry but the photos of the cube are much more impressive than the photos taken by the cube… Maybe if they were sharper and better exposed I might see some redeeming quality in them, but as they are I fall into the so what camp… those photos are unremarkable to say the least.
While I support the project, expecting people to pay $150 for 5 non-unique prints is just ridiculous. This is a shameless plug.
No shameless plug. Print costs are 15 USD. Shipping costs $6. Roll $3. Vat is 21%. For a limited edition print that’s relatively cheap. Check the rpices of other 25 limited edition prints and you will agree with me 🙂
Why does it say “Use before May 2013”? We’re in 2014, aren’t we..?
They did send already expired old rolls 🙁
Oh alright, well I am so interested in having one of the picture from the cube itself rather than of the cube (though I like them too) but I wonder about the price including the trip to Italy…
Did they think about refrigerating or deep-freezing the photographic paper until there would be time to use it? We used to do that with film that was about to expire, back in the old days…
who cares? give us rumors.
Wish them luck.. Just ordered a 100mm macro lens :/
what is that?
Giving 10$ to those guys is not a more useless investment than giving 5 cents to the church or paying 100$ in taxes to your government, or buying a Hasselblad Lunar. So many people do useless things by idealism and I accept this way of doing things, some call it creativity, even if it serves to nothing, or to save from destruction some photo paper no one will ever use again.
Imagine that someone had invented an enlarger, a non compromise machine where you put your reworked or non reworked shot in by computer connection, and it has projected the shot on real old photo paper, and you just had developed your photo like in ancient times with a digital shot at departure, some Photoshop filters give them that old style look, the paper industry had given a chance to survive. I know that such a projector has been made, but not in the state of the art, the one on the market is a piece of crap.
I would no pay 150$ for those prints, I would pay 150$ for prints with something nice and useful, and without that silly cube on it. It’s not the price that is not ok here, it’s what is on the shots. That cube just disturbs me. But, that again, is just a question of taste anyway. How about some good shots shot with the cube?
I couldn’t agree more. I shoot with the 20″x24″ Polaroid and as much as I am thrilled with the process if the images aren’t spectacular the rest is worthless. Those stupid cube pictures fall into that category. I wouldn’t give you 5 dollars for one. And besides the longevity of that material is at best 30 years. I’ll take an Epson print anyway.
“paying 100$ in taxes to your government,” OMG how stupid can this be! Really? I’ll be glad when you are seriously ill and need a public hospital, I’ll be glad when your children are uneducated because you can’t afford to put them in a private schools and that public schools are gone…pathetic but then you don’t seem to understand the meaning of art either “something nice and useful,” yeah right…..
wonderful concept and images. a true reflection on photography 🙂
best donation i have made this year.
Mike, you don’t belong here….you have a positive attitude!!
lol, can’t argue with that – reading the comments. For me, the appeal of this project aren’t the images the cube records, which are quite ordinary, but looking at it as a whole, it is a piece of landart and can serve as a starting point for a philosophical investigation, the installation of a mirror surfaced cube in a landscape being recorded as it records….
Fantastic idea, and real courage producing this camera and photos. Personally, I feel very uninspired by the material produced so far, but very inspired by the concept of the camera and it potential; of what could be produced. This camera needs some subjects worthy of its vision. And the ability to buy prints from what is produced.
Interesting Idea. Not donating though.
Were the photos of the actual cube shot digitally?
* I do not find the images made by the thing to be worthwhile of funding.
* I also think that they should have been more responsible with the timeline for the use of the film (as in, plan well in bloody advance to get funding to see the film used as intended) which maybe would have led to have a good sponsor to have seen the project executed thoroughly.
* The cube “stories” stopped being a story after the 7th picture. All else seems like ethereal portraits that have a baby-lens like feeling. If the image quality was that amazing, perhaps focusing the use of these rolls on a project to showcase the grandeur of a by-gone era would have been a more appropriate and interesting investment instead of this.
* Maybe because of the above they did not find anyone willing to give them any money since the more interesting work in itself seems the photos taken OF the cube and not those made WITH the cube.
I am not saying that the Steve McCurry way of shooting the last rolls of Ektachrome are better than this (because its not…it was disappointing to see him do the same thing he’s done for almost 40 years) but I think that if tomorrow Kodak and Fuji say there will be no more Large Format, or Medium Format film, there would be people completely dedicated into shooting something where that medium truly excelled in a way no other medium can attempt to simulate and thus marking the end of those formats in a way they are properly, and creatively, represented. An opportunity to truly make bodies of work that can be easily referenced in the future as representatives of those imaging choices.
That’s an amazing project ! Thanks for sharing it.
I have to agree that most of the photographs made by the cube are a bit uninspiring. Why take the cube to mountains and not use it there ? I’d happily buy a print of that.
As for the colour shifting, so what ? Most of us manipulate photographs digitally to replicate cross process or other faded looks. I’m pretty sure they could sell prints with shifted colours if that suited the photograph.
Shame they don’t include a BUY IT button on the website. It’s almost as if they love the prints too much to sell them 😉