People are always asking me what do I do each day. As if I did not have anything to do when I am not teaching. As many people know, I retired a year ago from 24 years of teaching high school. Now, I have become a full time pinhole photographer. I have been dedicating my time to shooting pinhole photographs for myself, and updating and maintaining the Pinhole Project website. (I actually alphabetized each folder on this site, so you can find your image easily). While I miss the social aspect of my former job/life, I do not miss the crazy amount of work that it took to keep all running. I had an average of 125 students a semester working in all types of photography, both digital and film, in studio and on the street, in color and black and white, pinhole to large format cameras. Now life seems both more complex and simpler. I have come upon a new idea and it is very exciting to me and of course has to do with pinhole photography. I recently got a new version (exactly the same) of my old Zero 2000 120 pinhole camera. My old one, which I had used for over 20 years had worn out and was literally falling apart. The new one is a gem and I am so happy to have it. I have long used a Leonardo 4 x 5 inch pinhole camera with color negative film. I love that camera but the 4 x 5 film has become quite expensive to operate with the film close to 10.00 a sheet for film and processing. Until I learn how to process the film, I am shooting less with this camera and more with my Zero 2000.
So what have I come upon? It is of course, like all things pinhole, a happy accident. The Zero 2000 can be set to shoot a big rectangle, a smaller rectangle and a vertical almost square image. I set it to take the middle size rectangle and advance it for the smallest size image. The result is a wonderful overlap and the negatives have no black line between them. Even though this is not the Pinhole Project work, I will show a few images here because I am so excited. The first time I did this it was not intentional. That was about 4 years ago and I did not think too much about it, having no time to really investigate the idea. Then I tried it again about 3 years ago and now I am shooting regularly this way. Here are some images shot with the Zero set the way I have described:
Museum of Glass, Tacoma , WA
this image was made from two negatives, each exposed for about 45 minutes. Charlie Parriott and his daughter Helena Parriott had received a glass blowing residency from the museum and I was lucky enough to be able to shoot on the floor while they worked. Here is another one:
Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA
This image was also made of two images side by side on the film. The exposure was a bit less and people showed up more even though they are still shadows. I have shot a bit with this camera. I just shot the Climate March this way the other day and am waiting for the images to come back from the lab. Here are some shot in the summer. I have wanted to capture people and just began to using this technique. Again, all images are side by side on the film, no black line between them.
Martin and Roberta outside the coffee house, Georgetown, Seattle. Two ten minute exposures.
Self Portrait on couch with herb garden outside. Two ten minute exposures.
So these are some things I have been working on.