Pin-hole photography is tightly connected to the existence of the camera obscura. This term was used for the first time around 400 B.C. when chinese philosopher Mo-Ti realized that light travels in straight lines and all the objects reflect it in all directions. Also Euclid and Aristotle described this phenomenon.
But what changed the light tight box with a hole in it, that was used by 16th century painters to get perspectives right, was the invention of photosensitive substance around year 1727, still they did not knew how to fix the picture.
Also the very first photo, by Joseph Niépce, was taken with a pin-hole camera. You can see the way that shadows moved, as the exposure time was very long.
Now, how the heck it works: every point of the real image is projected through a tiny hole, as it reflects light, the beam of a light leaks through the hole and creates the reflected image, which is smaller and upside-down inverted. Just like that.
As this might seem to be too theoretical, lets move to the fun part of it. You can transform every light-proof container into a camera, so you really can have some good times constructing your own ones.
I'm already practising this kind of magic for like 3 years, and can tell you that it's far less difficult to build one than it might seem to. The most tricky part of the whole process is to get the right hole diameter for the size of your lightsensitive material ( whether it is film or photo paper ) and the distance of it from the hole, but since you can calculate those using an application, it's no longer such a big deal, but don't let yourselves get scared by the numbers you are about to witness, such as 0.14mm diameter, if you don't care just use a tip of a tiny pin and a cutout of can's aluminium wall . And that's that, just wrap it with some black tape and you're ready to go.
However, the the can isn't the limitation, there is not such a thing. There were many beautiful projects with camera obscura being used truly originally. For instance Jo Babcock turned a van into large format pinhole camera.
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| Volkswagen Van pinhole camera & Jo Babcock, 1990 |
Abelardo Morell is working with two visual layers in one image, using nothing else than a pinhole. He travels around world and turns hotel rooms into giant camera obscura, then he take photos of outside world being blended with dark inside world.
He also constructed a transportable tent that is in fact just another camera obscura which project the image from outside onto the surface the tent is set on.
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| Abelardo Morell - Camera Obscura Image of the Chrysler Building in Hotel Room, 1999 |
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| Abelardo Morell - Tent-Camera Image on Ground: Sand Beach and Rocks.Acadia National Park, Maine - March, 2010 |
Justin Quinnell experimented with the way pinholes are used rather than their construction, He realized it's possible to make exposures as long as six months and even longer with can filled with photographic paper.
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| 6 months lasting exposure be Justin Quinnell |
Also David sent some of his photos over from Slovenia, that give you a little insight in the process that's going on in the darkroom. The first picture is shot with an old coffee can on 10x15 photo paper.
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| A contact printed positive from a pinhole for photo paper |
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| Darkroom shots: fixing the photograph |
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| negative and the resulting contact print |
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| my 35mm film pinhole camera made of mints tin |
I've been working with film pinholes recently as the exposures take a lot less this way and since 35mm is the most affordable way to go, that was my choice. With small strangle looking box, nobody will really take notice that you are actually taking photos and I took advantages of it. There's a little traffic series, not much more to say.
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