From Congo with Love

Using new technology from Desktop Display, visitors to London's South Bank can instantly display their photos alongside those of portrait photographer, Ian Rankin and have them published online. 

From Congo with Love presents images from Rankin's visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo with Oxfam and focuses on the love and solidarity found in the midst of one of the world’s worst conflict zones.

In the midst of this huge outdoor exhibition is a professional Canon camera, which visitors can control to take their own photographs for display alongside Rankin’s striking images taken with the same camera.

Using a wall-mounted keypad, all they have to do is enter an email address and pose for their photo. Like looking in a mirror, they see their image on a vertically mounted 32-inch monitor before it is captured. A simple idea, but not an easy one to implement given that the camera had to operate in different lighting conditions 24 hours a day!

We won the contract, not only because we had the know-how to control the camera, but because we had experience of capturing and storing high resolution photographs and a track record of creating simple user interfaces.