Steven Pippin has earned an international reputation over the last decade for his projects that have converted a wide range of everyday objects (truck trailers, toilets, and even entire buildings) into low-grade photographic cameras. His work combines precision engineering with the experimental fervor of the amateur photo bug. In this series, a washing machine becomes the camera, and the artist is the subject. In an age of high-tech digital photography, color photocopiers, and the Internet, Pippin's works provide a cautionary and melancholy reminder of the origins of photography and capture some of the wonder that this medium inspired in the minds of its first viewers.

Pippin's work was first shown at the Walker Art Center as part of the 1995 exhibition "Brilliant! New Art from London.