I Have Stepped Across a Line

I am no longer a digital photographer but a full time pinhole photographer. There is a certain stigma good and bad attached to pinhole photography. The first stigma is that pinhole is simple and not done seriously. I want to discourage this way of thinking. It is not simple and I am serious about it. No viewfinder, no focus, no real shutter speeds or aperture choices do not mean it is easy. Pinhole photography requires patience and timing. It is not something that just happens. The second stigma involves the waiting. I recently shot a wedding in pinhole in New York. The young people there were very enthusiastic about pinhole and knew what it was. The only thing they asked, was to see the images now. That can’t happen and I hold images in my mind that I like and I am a patient person who is happy to wait. For waiting is the crux of pinhole photography. A few positive things about pinhole: it harkens back to the beginnings of photography. I do most of my work on film. I am happy with that. I like the tactile feeling of film; the fact that the negative really exists. I like to work in the past.

I am sharing with you today some images I have made over the last several years. Not all are totally done still but they work for me. I hope you will like them too. I started shooting with the pinhole camera over thirty years ago. I am finally strong enough to say I am a pinhole photographer and do nothing else. It is freeing and feels good to me. I no longer care whether others like what I do. I hope they do but if not that’s life. The first row is from the Willapa Bay AiR. 2nd row is from Civita where I stayed in Italy on a fellowship and made lots of pinhole images. The 3rd row is long exposure pinholes from various homemade cans. The 4th row are various pinhole weddings. The 5th row are prints from 4 x 5 inch negatives from my book Innards. The 6th and 7th row are various images shot over the years beginning with an image from the Breaks in

Sputh Dakota and ending with the Point of a Pencil one of the first portfolio prints from LoupeHoles, a still life portfolio. You can see most of these images (with titles) on my website: janetneuhauser.com There are many more that I have not published here.

They Said It Wouldn't Last

A lot of the pinholes on this website are from when I was a photography teacher at Bainbridge High School. I really started the Project in order for my students there (and at PCNW where I was also teaching) would have a way to experience the pinhole camera without a darkroom. The students at both places made wonderful images for several years and I felt so good that they loved the process as much as I did. Now almost two years since I left BHS, the Pinhole Project thrives, despite what the naysayers utter. I get about 4 or 5 cameras in the mail each week and people often stop by the studio unannounced to bring me a camera. (Which is always a great surprise). I feel fortunate to be the director of the Project and that so many people want to continue making images.

I make images in this fashion as well.. It requires patience because the longer the exposure in general the better the sun trails and the better the image. It is so tempting to take down the camera sooner than later. I exposed one camera two years. Not because I wanted to but because I just did not get back to it where it was under a bridge in California. When I went back, the camera had not been touched. Pretty cool. So I am happy with the number of people willing to give this a try, happy with the images and happy to continue to make cameras and hand them out. I post today to show off some recent arrivals. I try to process them ASAP and post immediately to the website.

This is just a sampling and if you want to see more, feel free to look at all the folders in the Gallery. In the meantime here are some pretty wonderful images: People have photographed their homes, leaving the cameras up for six months or more, have used two hole cameras, been first users and also shot enough to earn their own folder on the website (10 or more images). Round cameras are always popular. If you have a special metal can, bring it on over and we will make it into a camera. I have paper up to 11 x 14 inches. Bigger cameras need more holes. Two, three and four cameras are awesome. So if you would like a camera or have a tin you would like to bring by, contact me via email and leave a street (land) address and we will send one out to you. . Donate to the Project or not, we will still send you a camera!

Recent arrivals:

The images in the grid above are by the following pinhole photographers, left to right

Top Row:

Eric Riedel and Barry Christensen: two hole camera, take a look at their folders!

Alan Marrero: First time user, exposing a second camera now.

Laura Brodax: This one was placed on a wall outside her home

Henry Glovinsky: Inside his new house in LA; a crazy pinhole that works!

2nd Row:

Mario & Luciana Colafrancesco: Made in Rome, Italy. by this awesome husband and wife team.

Kirsten Wilhelm A street, I think in front of her house.

Jesse Tampa: From the series of the inside her apartment; Look closely and you can see her white cat

Louisa Williams: She just did her tenth pinhole and now has her own folder on the website

Third Row:

Meghan McNeil and John Barcarro: A round pinhole exposed only 19 hours. A record for a short exposure

Kenneth Loen: Sent in while I was in Italy. Wonderful pinhole from down town Seattle.

Meghan McNeil and John Barcarro: Their front door. These two collaborators now have their own folder

Jenny Riffle: Made while she was on a fellowship in White Salmon, WA