Disposable

In the era of smartphones and webcams, it’s easy to forget the magic of disposable cameras. Candid and unforgiving, photos from disposables can capture everything from intimate interactions to poorly cropped selfies to blurry chaos. This photography carries the weight of being unerasable. There are no second chances.

For “Disposable”, curator Michael Sharp wanted to see what would happen when you give an artist a camera with only one chance to take a single photo of anything. Two disposable cameras loaded with Ilford black and white film were passed around the Con Artist Collective for several months. There was just one rule, each artist could only take one picture and then had to give the camera to someone else.

We can only guess how the show will look and feel. It could be shocking, it could be dull, it could be accidental shots of the inside of artist’s pockets. It’s more than likely going to be all these things as well as a powerful look into the lives of diverse New York artists. A book documenting the project will be available at the gallery.