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Trashcam Project: Dumpsters shoot great photos

Creative garbage collectors in Germany turn dumpsters into giant pinhole cameras, and the resulting images can be stunning.

Timothy Fernandez
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Timothy Fernandez
Hans-Dieter Braatz, a member of the Trashcam Project, moves the shutter of the pinhole camera. Trashcam Project/Flickr

Great, now we have no excuse for taking horrible pictures on our aging digital cameras. Just take a look at some of the images shot by garbage collectors in Germany with dumpsters that have been converted into giant pinhole cameras.

The Katharinenfleet in Hamburg photographed by garbagemen Werner Benning, Christoph Blaschke, and Mirko Derpmann. Trashcam Project/Flickr

Pictures for the Trashcam Project are created by hanging large sheets of Ilford photo paper (not film) inside a closed dumpster with a few holes drilled into the front. To create the eerie photographs you see here, the pinhole photographers line the "camera" up with their subjects and secure it in place -- by locking the wheels of the trash bins, we're guessing. Then they wait, for up to an hour, until an image is formed.

While the process does sound more than a little tedious, the results can be breathtaking, with water appearing incredibly silky and the aggressive pinhole vignette effect lending a wonderfully artistic feel.

Werner Benning, Christoph Blaschke, and Mirko Derpmann also shot this picture of the ship Rickmer Rickmers in Hamburg. Trashcam Project/Flickr

(Source: Crave Asia via PetaPixel)