It is no secret that I love a great pinhole camera. homemade from an old breath mint tin, a metal Martini Shaker, an iphone box; Scotch and candy tins or anything that is light tight and if outside, weatherproof all work well. Th crooked image* that has been made calls to me and I cannot run away.. There are several ways in which pinhole photography differs from regular photography.
The Not Knowing: This does not exist at all in digital photography unless you have a pinhole cap on the digital camera. It certainly exists in film but many younger photographers have not experienced it. You cannot see through the pinhole while setting up the image; you cannot frame the photograph in the camera nor can you see it immediately after. being taken (you can see it immediately in a digital but the other the caveats are true. There are other Not Knowings with long exposure pinhole; some examples: will the camera actually work? Many cameras are iffy and not light tight nor weatherproof. They work or not. You find out by using them. There is no warranty or guarantee with these reused tins. The second Not Knowing is about the image itself: Is the placement thought out and workable? How much time is too much or too little for the exposure? What about rain and fog?
Tending vs Shooting/Making vs Taking: This may sound too new-agey for many readers but it is true that you must tend the camera, revisit the place and make sure the camera survives. The camera records the light, the sun trail, the weather, even cars and the water’s movement. If the sun trail is broken, the sun was not out on that day. Each image in this archive is recognizable as the place where it was exposed by the pinholist. The best ones are where the person returns and checks on the camera even though the camera has become a part of the environment, and many people forget where they put it.
Softness and focus. Lens photography has become ultra sharp. I do not see that way and give credence to the beauty of the tiny hole and paper negative. No glass, simply air and light as it is only a hole through which the light is gathered and focused. And there is no actually focusing, this is based on the size of the pinhole which is based on the distance between the pinhole and the paper. Depending on where the pinhole is placed and its size, the image will be sharper or softer. If there is movement in the camera from the spot where the camera was placed, there will be more softness. In multi hole cameras, the pinholes must be the exact same size. Many people have placed their cameras on boat masts and in boathouses, on trees, and poles and in cars and other conveyances. This not only creates softness but has wonderful effects.
Lately I have become enamored with multi-hole cameras. There are so many possibilities with these cameras and people everywhere are making stunning images with them. There are two ways that I know of to make cameras: one is to space the holes evenly around the camera surface and depending on the size you can make two holes, three holes, four holes or more. Or you can take a single hole camera and punch a couple of holes very close to each other. This makes some interesting images. You can expose the multi hole camera uncovering one hole and waiting for a time (usually a month or more) and exposing the other holes. (You can’t do this with multiple holes that are very close together).
Photography has always been about the happy accident to me and the not knowing. Of course I was lucky to learn photography using film. It usually takes me a while to like an image that I get either with the digital or film cameras or the pinhole. I like to look at the image for a long time. The biggest problem with long exposure pinholes is exposing long enough; this requires patience. Please don’t take your camera down after one week. Wait and be patient. It is a virtue not found in many people these days. Below are some recent multi-hole images from the Project.
crooked image* . a phrase I first heard from my mentor and teacher, Judy Seigel. Did she coin it? I don’t know but what she meant was an image that is somehow off the beaten path, altered with intention or not, but real enough to pack a punch.
Libby Bulloff and Stephen Robinson, two hole camera, 90 day exposure from the Sunny Arms Project, Out There. 2014
April Surgent: From her trip to Antartica in 2014
Janet Neuhauser, From Lo Studio to the East, Civita, Italy 2019 (Two hole camera from a Saltine Tin)
Steve Neuhauser: Boathouse, Brownsville, WA 2020