Sunday, February 03, 2008

Pinhole camera: Geometric Distortion



This series of photos were taken with a homemade pinhole camera, for my class. I made mine out of a long skinny cardboard box, and therefore my shots are long and skinny! The pinholes were fun, but oh-so-labor-intensive! The original out of the camera image is a negative. These are contact prints made from the negative image. Only one shot could be taken at a time, then processed to see if I guessed the exposure correctly, so there were quite a few out-takes on these. They're difficult also because there is no viewfinder... I had to guess that my box was positioned correctly to get the image I wanted, not the sky or the dirt or whatever. But after hours and hours (and peeling fingers from all the darkroom chemicals!) I ended up liking these. I only posted one in each category: the assignment requires five in each category for a total of 30 usable shots.

I like how the collection hangs together. In all but the landscape there is an enclosing curvilinear form, and even in the landscape it is enclosing if not curvilinear.

4 comments:

Gawdess said...

That long skinny feel is very cohesive for this set - I think it would striking in a framed group on a bare wall.

Unknown said...

These are awesome. Jacob took a photography class that used pinhole cameras. I'm astounded at what they capture, actually! It really strips the process down to essentials, doesn't it?

SUSAN said...

Wow...impressive!

Susan

Jeff Reeder said...

This is so great to see. Such a different animal than the digital stuff we have gotten used to, huh. I miss this...I think. Maybe not the long hours in the darkroom, but the experementing, and the sense of accomplishment when they work. You got some really nice images, which is tough with a pinhole camera. I have been slacking on the blog browsing (and posting) but it was cool to see this! Thanks.