Take a disposable camera and......

I am always on the lookout for photos to use in class.

So when I read the other day about 'Camara Obscura', it caught my eye.

If you are in London on Saturday, 10th March (I won't - I'll be in the Universidad de Deusto giving a seminar at the TESOL Spain National Convention.  Hope some of you might come along to it!!!

Well, as I was saying, if you are in London on Saturday, 10th March, you might get the chance to take part in Camara Obscura 2012.  The organisers will be leaving 10 cameras around London, then they will give hints via Twitter regarding the location of each camera.


If you have Twitter, you can follow this event here:  Twitter: _camobscura




What will happen next?  Probably something similar to what happened in 2010:

On August 18th 2010 a disposable camera was left in the middle of Covent Garden. Labeled with instructions to take a photo, relocate and leave behind for the next person, Camera Obscura began its journey around the UK.

43 days later it returned. 

From Covent Garden the camera soon found its way across London towards Chipping Sodbury in South-West England then, nearing the end of its journey, it was taken on a boat tour of Beachy Head in Eastbourne.

http://www.cameraobscuraproject.co.uk/

And this is where I think the project and its outcomes could be useful for us teachers.

The 2010 photos have been posted on flickr here.

There are 24 photos.

Here is photo number 1:

Ways that you could use the photos from 2010 in class, maybe:

1  Give out all/ a selection of the photos.  Without showing them to each other, each student describes their photo.  They have to decide if any of the photos are of the same people/were taken in the same place, etc.
2  Divide students into groups of 4 or 5.  Give them one photo each.  They have to find similarities and differences between their photos.
3  Show students photos 18 - 24 (but without the numbers).  They have to decide on an order for the photos and say or write the story of their day (they are one of the people on the boat) and where they found the camera and what they did with the camera afterwards.


There have been similar projects in different parts of the world.  Here are two of them:

http://theplug.net/28/strangerphotos.htm  (Camera tied to a park bench in Georgia, Atlanta, USA)

http://theplug.net/38/strangerphotos.htm  /In Tokyo)

Would YOU volunteer to be on a photo like these?