If retro-style snaps are worth a billion dollars à la Instagram, what does that say about the value of real prints taken with pre-WWII gear? Reminding us that early cameras were photochemical and shutterless, Kabul is home to two lone holdouts who still practice the 75-year-old art of wooden camera photography. Due to a ban on picture-taking by the Taliban, and then an influx of cheap digital cameras, the number of practitioners of kamra-e-faoree has steadily dwindled. But thanks to the Afghan Box Camera Project, the legacy left by these artisans is being preserved -- not least in the video above. Discover how it all works and then leave the faux-vintage to the hipsters.

Afghan photographers eschew electronics for wooden camera portraits (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 May 2012 14:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.