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Writer's pictureStory Cars

1995 Camera Van

This van is the brainchild of American filmmaker and photographer Harold Blank, whose entire body and some of the car's interior are covered with cameras.


According to Harold, this van idea came to him in 1993 in a dream, after which he went to the store and bought all the cheap cameras. For the following two years, he was engaged in design and construction. And in 1995, his Camera Van began its journey; the unit could drive and take pictures simultaneously.


The front of the car is adorned with Polaroid cameras, and there are all the models this company has ever produced. On the left side, the vehicle is decorated with a mosaic of Kodak Instamatic cameras, with an installation depicting the model's gigantic camera. On the back of the car are two monitors on which slideshows of photographs taken by Cameraven are played. The four monitors on the right side of the car symbolize the film.


You must be insane or bored to cover an entire van with photo cameras, but Harold Blank thinks of it as art.


It all started one night in 1993 when Harold Blank had a dream where he covered his entire van with cameras. When he woke up, he thought his dream was an epiphany, so he went straight to the store and bought all the cheap cameras he could afford. Shortly after, the Camera Van was born.


Blank likes to drive around the cities and take photos of people. He believes when passers-by see his creation, they are under the impression the cameras are all broken, so they act more loosely. That gives him a chance to take some great shots.


The front of the Camera Van is covered with all types of Polaroid cameras, the driver's side is a mural made out of Kodak Instamatic cameras, and the passenger's side has 32-inch LCDs that look like negative frames. The back of the van has 2 LCDs of kids waving to passers-by while the word "SMILE" sits atop the car, constructed from Kodak point-and-shoot cameras.


According to Google, Harold Blank's official site could harm your computer, but you can check it out if you wish. I hear he has been driving his Camera Van through Mexico and South America and hasn't updated his site in over two years.


Source: odditycentral.com; kaverin.info

Images: cameravan.com



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