The Book is a Camera by Brooklyn-based artist and designer Kelli Anderson is a book that concisely explains—and actively demonstrates—how a structure such as a folded piece of paper can use light to produce a photo.
“The best part of this project is in understanding why the camera works, you become better acquainted with how light works,” says Anderson.
Anderson’s speciality is packing functional 3D contraptions into books such as, a planetarium with real constellations powered by a smartphone's LED camera flash and another book that’s also a record player.
The book, which only costs $29, includes a piece of paper folded into a working camera, a lightproof bag, and photo-paper and development instructions. Anderson designed The Book is a Camera because she is curious about understanding the elements that make analogue technology work. “I’ve been disassembling everyday tools, stripping off their normal interface, and reducing them down to their functional minimums,” she says.
Anderson specifically designed her pinhole camera with support from the Adobe Creative Residency under a Creative Commons license so you can also download the template, build it, and use the knowledge to make your own variant.
