Pinhole Photography

On Monday the 14th of March we had an induction into pinhole photography. This hands-on, inexpensive and unpredictable way of producing black and white photographic works using the fundamental principles of photography which can be dated back hundreds of years. Though at first we had trouble with over exposure and underexposure, the end result was a collection of ghost-like images, which we then experimented with by layering the images on top of each other, and using fix to create white slashes.

Many artists have perfected the process of pinhole photography, and these following examples show to what extremes one can take this method of photograph taking.

Scott Speck
This collection of pinhole photography has been perfected to such an extent that some photographs could be mistaken for professional dark-room images.

He chooses interesting angles from which to take his images, and 'The Massive National Archives' (above) show how small these pinhole cameras can be made. Also notice the slight curve of the image, which suggest the camera has been made out of a slightly circular object, giving a fish-eye effect.

These are two common themes in his work, as other examples show his focus on the celings of other interesting and well known bulidings, including 'National Shrine Celing' and 'Gothic Glory' (below).



One of the other very attractive aspects about pinhole photography is its lack of restrictions. These images do not to be confined to a single piece of photographic paper, and many artists look into turning entire rooms onto pinhole cameras.

Abelardo Morell

Aberlardo Morell's piece 'Times Square in Hotel Room' shows just how effective this technique can be. By simply transfering the outside world of the streets of New York into his hotel room by using the pinhole process, he completely changes the look of the room.

Due to the physics of the pinhole camera, the image is reflected back to front upside down, resulting with the cars on the street looking as if they are driving along his celing and down the back wall. Adverts such as the Coca-Cola billboard can also be recognised upside down back to front. I think one of the most interesting aspects of this technique is the fact that every space in the room, apart from the shadows, has something interesting reflected on it. as the pinhole does not miss one piece of detail from the street outside.