colour pinhole photography

I have decided to take my black and white pinhole photography to another level and started to work with colour paper instead. I have just developed my first two prints, each holds an orange glow, with one sharp spot of green. I like how they still hold the same ghostly qualities of a black and white pinhole photograph yet have varying hues of colour. From my research into colour paper I think different types of colour paper hold varying hues of colour, for example some will process with a blue hue instead of orange. However, I would like to try using colour filters over the front of my pinhole to see what effect this would have on the image, can I create another hue?

The search is on...

After a long search around the bottom floor of my university building it has become apparent that there are not many suitable rooms that can be turned into a camera obscura, due to many being either offices or workshops. There is one option to work with a room on the first floor, which has a lower ceiling and would not incur the use of a ladder to black out the room, however more problems have now occurred again due to health and safety procedures. Due to the windows in the university having a seal on them to stop the glass smashing if it is hit, it is not possible to attach anything to the windows, therefore my technique of using boards to black out the room will not be allowed, so it is back to the drawing room....

Room 203 disappointment

After being told I could take over room 203 at the university for a day, health and safety problems have occurred.  Due to the room being quite tall I would have to use ladders to reach the top of the windows in the blacking out process, however due to the room being on the second floor it is against the univeristy health and safety rules to take a ladder up the stairs, so therefore I would be unable to black out the window and create a camera obscura. The only option was to therefore look for another room in the university, but this took away the connection of the building site and students relationship to it, basically the whole point of the project. But, I am still interested in students interaction with any camera obscura so I will have to look for another room.

Room 203

Currently my university is under going some changes, one of these includes a building being knocked down and a new one replacing it. This building site is next to my studio and during the building process it has become rather noisy and disturbed our year group meetings. So much to the extent that people started to resent the new building and requested to be moved to a room away from it. As a personal project I thought it would be interesting to turn this room into a camera obscura, having the building site projected into the room. I am hoping this will create a new way of experiencing the room and the building site, maybe creating a way for students to enjoy it again. I think the movement of the building site projected into the darkened room and the constant noise of the site would create a nice contrast in feelings and come together as a piece. If I am allowed to take over the room for a period of time, I would like to invite any students to come and interact with the camera obscura and see if it has changed their views of the room.

Michael Wesely - MOMA

This photograph was taken by photographer Michael Wesely, over a a 34 month period. It is one of a series of photographs which, captures the destruction and reconstruction of MOMA over this period using a long exposure.

Wesely's photographic practice involves his invention and refining of his techniques for his unusually long exposures, some lasting for more than three years. He uses this unusual approach to photography to capture some ghostly and stimulating photographs of the construction of urban sites. One of these being the rebuilding of Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. As buildings are knocked down and then reconstructed it leaves a path of past and present, making it hard to distinguish the two.

MOMA invited Wesely to take a series of his long exposures during the destruction and reconstruction of their site from 2001 to June 2004, he used 4 different site locations to create his eight photographs. The overlaid images allow for an in-depth and unusual history of the site to be relayed within one image. The second photograph, of the ones shown above, is one of my favourites. It holds the same qualities of a solargraphy photograph as the movement of the sun can be seen within the image, giving the photograph a soft finish. It is also given so much depth due to the horizontal lines forming a mask of the construction of MOMA. The surrounding buildings stand solid and unchanged in the constant change of the surrounding area.

Darren Almond - Moons of the Lapatus Ocean

My tutor introduced me to Darren Alomnd's work recently, he works in a variety of mediums, including photography and film, using these mediums to "explore the effects of time on the individual."1 The photographs of his which, intrigued me the most are from a series called 'Moons of the Lapatus Ocean'. The series includes two different bodies of work: "Fullmoon photographs that incorporate new images and key earlier images from around the British Isles and new large-scale photographs taken in Tibet."2 His moonlight photographs interest me the most, as I wish to start to photograph using my pinhole cameras at night. My aim is to use the moon as my only light source, for this I will have to use very long exposures, although I am unsure how long. Almond also uses a long exposure however, he uses a digital camera instead of a pinhole camera, therefore his exposures don't need to be as long. Although, the photographs created still hold a ghostly effect like pinhole photographs, due to the hazy moonlight which turns the night into a murky day. I feel Brian Dillon describes Almonds photographs well in his catalogue essay, 'a kind of fog of knowing and unknowing, revealing and concealing.'  The moonlight seems to bring other aspects of the landscape alive compared to what a photograph taken during the day would, you notice different qualities of the landscape. Photographing at night links back to my experience in Finland where I had little sunlight during the first half of my stay. Photographing at night will bring back the circumstances of Finland. It is also a way for me to form an identity with my environment, which at present I feel I have little identity with. These feelings have stemmed from my experience of Finland and the identity the locals have with their harsh environment.


1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darren_Almond
2.http://www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/da_wc_hs/

http://www.michaelhoppengallery.com/home,mhg,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,michael_hoppen_gallery.html

Some interesting photography work to look at...