Multiple pinholes

I have turned a Cadbury's Roses tin into a pinhole camera, the shape and size of the tin has allowed me to create a pinhole camera with multiple pinholes. These photographs were taken using three different pinholes located at different points around the roses tin, giving a 360 degree photograph of one place. The is a first practice camera and as you can see some adjustment needs to be done to the positioning of the pinholes. The strip of white on the bottom photograph shows that there is a lapse in light getting to this part of the paper. The top photograph however doesn't have this strip of white because it has been exposed for longer. This does mean that other areas of the photograph have become overexposed, giving denser areas of black which block areas of detail from being seen.  Therefore, the pinholes need to be positioned closer together to enable a full 360 degree to be formed rather than expose the whole photograph for longer. 

Scanned colour pinholes

This is a self portrait created by on of my pinhole cameras, the original is the colour version at the top, where I placed colour photography paper inside of my pinhole camera and developed it. I have then gone on to scan in the original to create the bottom version. Again, scanning in a colour photograph and adjusting the colours has allowed me to discover more detail in the photograph, especially on the left eye. Now a pupil can be seen where as before you just knew it was there, due to the variations of hue in colour. Although, these are both essentially the same photograph they could maybe be mistaken for different ones. They both give me varying feeling when I see them too, when I look at the bottom self portrait I get a much more morbid and dazed feeling. This is simply due to the colour and the fact there is a sense of looking in the bottom version, where as the eyes don't seem to have much point of vision in the top, it is more like an image of a heat radar. 

Digital pinhole camera

Instead of working with my homemade pinhole cameras I decided I would adapt my digital camera into a pinhole camera. To do this I simply removed the lense and replaced it will a homemade pinhole lense. I wasn't sure as to what would happen and if the camera would actually work without a proper lense, however I found that it worked surprisingly well. I was able to gain decent amount of detail seen as a pinhole was only being used. The photos I look have a dreamy and hazy look to them, which is common in pinhole photographs. A digital pinhole camera means that I can take pinhole images much quicker, however I do feel it takes away the reason I love pinhole photography so much - the surprise of the photograph being revealed as you develop them. 

Michael Wesely - Berlin

In a past post I have written about Michael Wesely and his photographic project with MOMA. When i discovered this project I became intrigued with other projects he was involved with. One included a long exposure project his did in Berlin, at the time I was unable to find much information, but I have recently come across two images of his project. They show the urban renewal of Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. It is become of particular interest now as I will be visiting Berlin in a months time. I find the photograph below particularly eerie and interesting due the ghostly image of the reconstructed building which, is only really seen when you focus on the photograph. The old building is seen in a more solid state while the new building is faint ghostly image over the top. It shows a deep connection to the past which, can be seen more easily then the new. There is an interesting focus on change throughout Wesely's work which I want to look into further.

Scanned colour pinhole photograph

I have previously scanned in solargraphy images which, I have taken using pinhole cameras, as this is the way you process the photograph - the overexposure of light creates an inverted image of the photograph. However, I decided I would scan in my colour pinhole photograph to see what happened when I inverted the colours. I was quite shocked at the results as it allows you to see much more detail in the photograph than the original colour copy does. (the original version is shown in a post below) Although, certain areas are blurry you get an overall idea of how much more detail can be actually be seen as is hidden in the colour of the pinhole photograph. Another quality I enjoy of this scanned image is the colour of the traffic light signals, due to the long exposure a full cycle of the lights occured, therefore in one photograph you can see all colours of the signal. This is also the only definite colour which can be seen in the photograph. I think it would be quite interesting to use colour paper in city night exposures, as the strong lights of a city would hopefully come through in a scanned image. 

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...

Miroslav Tichy - homemade cameras

Miroslav Tichy

The work of Tichy has recently been brought to my attention, he is a new 'find' of unknown artists working in the world photography. He became obsessed with the female form and photographed in streets, shops, parks and swimming pools with his home made cameras. He made his cameras from junk left on the street, just as I have made many of my cameras. His photographs hold an intimate and delicate feel which are magical, even though the photographs are presented in a rather casual way. However, I think this adds to the effect of this poetic intimacy.

first snow!!

Although I left Finland five months ago I still have a connection to the place and have recently become obsessed with webcam images of the areas I was so familiar with earlier this year. I have started to copy an image each day of a few sites in Rovaniemi via webcam which, have been set up around the city. I was delighted this morning when I saw that they had had their first snow! Even though I am so far away I have a feeling of excitement, and wish i could be back there.

third year

We have now all made it to third year! Although, I am mainly feeling scared about the process of third year, there is also the feeling of elevation and excitement for the future and where I will be this time next year! One thing is for sure the time has gone so so fast...

painting

I decided to continue painting and chose to work on a larger canvas, (180cm x 100cm). I took inspiration from a Finnish artist lithographs I had looked at during my visit to Lapland.

Portrait

I have never done any portrait painting before so I decided I would start a portrait painting during the summer. I decided to take an abstract approach and enjoyed the freedom of painting again. 

Missed opportunity

I feel have a missed a big opportunity by not documenting the changes that occur here in more detail, I some ways I don't think I was prepared for the changes to be so drastic and sudden. It just doesn't happen in the UK. If I was to do this trip again I would create a project around the changes, probably documenting them in a photographic way. I think it could have been a very interesting opportunity and defiantly a missed opportunity. I think I allowed this to happen as I got swept along with my new surroundings and new life where everything is so different to home.