In 1974, Ken Ohara Mailed his Camera to a Stranger | The Artist and Curator on 'Ken Ohara: CONTACTS'

On this last day of the exhibition Ken Ohara: CONTACTS, on the third floor of the Whitney Museum, we are sharing a conversation with the artist, Ken Ohara, and the curator, Eli Harrison, about this landmark collaborative photography project. 

In 1974 New York–based photographer Ken Ohara initiated a kind of photographic chain letter, choosing a stranger at random from the local telephone book and mailing them his camera pre-loaded with film. The camera was accompanied by instructions directing the recipient to photograph themself and their family and friends and then return the camera to the artist along with the name and address of the person to whom the artist should send it next. Over the course of two years, Ohara's camera traveled to a hundred participants in thirty-six states—as far from his West Village apartment as Hawai'i, and as close as the Bronx. By inviting participants to document their own lives, Ohara relinquished photographic control in favor of portraying the country's vastness through the eyes of strangers.