As a photojournalist I spend my time looking for fractions of seconds that when combined with the right light and the correct framing tell a story and capture the essence of a moment in someones life. Everything is digital. Everything is quick. Photography has become computerized and negatives have been replaced by pixels. The darkroom replaced by the laptop. Working with the pinhole blender camera is like being inside that refrigerator box once again. The images I make with the blender surprise me and allow the wonder of photography to return. The camera requires light to paint upon the films surface for seconds or even minutes which seems to melt the moments into a single frame. There is little to no precision required as the camera inverts and bends the subject matters, weaving color and shapes back into themselves, creating the essence of the scene instead of its exact reproduction. All the blender images here were made with Chris Peregoys Original 120 Pinhole Blender camera"
The first time I saw pinhole imagery was in an alternative photography class. I was amazed that you could use the long exposure times to 'ghost' figures in and out of the final picture. There is a wonderful series by Julie Schachter in The Visionary Pinhole by Lauren Smith. These photos were so inspirational, so innovative to me, I'd never seen anything like them. I mulled over the possibilities but didn't begin in earnest till about a year later when I was completely bored of my current batch of lens photos. I decided to shamelessly imitate Ms. Schachter's ideas. After a lot of challenges: working out how to get any image, much less and interesting one, I learned I wanted an entirely different outcome. I had started backpacking and was far more drawn to landscape. I also wanted to use the open ended possibilities of the home made pinhole camera to make a foundation for experimental processes. I could cut a full roll of 120 mm film in half and create a continuous panorama. I could use 8 in. x 10 in. Ortho Litho films, placed side by side in giant aluminum cans to get an extra wide angle, detail rich large format image. I particularly liked to solarize the Litho in the darkroom. The huge surface area of the negatives provides a lot of information to explore. I develop my own color negatives so I can tweak the process at any point. I use black and white film and print chemistry on color films and vary the temperatures and timing on everything. Expired films seem to work best for me, they carry their own surprising quirks and I feel less precious about the investment, consequently I'm even more inclined to break the rules and take risks. Its a long way from my inspiration but I still plan to adapt Ms. Schachters 'Bathers Series' into a subjective vision, possibly involving alternative processes, certainly using a pinhole camera.
I started taking pinhole photographs in the early 1990s, after having seen some image (dont remember which one any longer) with an extremely tempting expression. Yep, that was how I saw the world as well! I discovered the wonderful magazine "Pinhole Journal" (R.I.P.) and started taking my first steps into this mysterious and oh so appealing new world of imagery. Since then, I have mostly worked with 120-film in an old bellows camera turned into a very wide-angled pinhole camera. But lately I started using other cameras as well; film canister cameras and some commercial pinhole cameras such as the amazing anamorph Abelson Scope camera. The pinhole camera is a tool that allows me to create images that I can imagine - but not always see. But most of the time it is a tool that helps me a lot in the image-creating, since it involves a great deal of chance. I seldom know exactly what the images will look like - which quite often make them a lot better than they had been if I had worked mainly from my own plans. I also really just love opening the camera, seeing the light flowing into it, creating a unique image - an image that can never be repeated... (I just hope the exposure is somewhat correct!
I started taking pinhole photographs in the early 1990s, after having seen some image (don't remember which one any longer) with an extremely tempting expression. Yep, that was how I saw the world as well! I discovered the wonderful magazine "Pinhole Journal" (R.I.P.) and started taking my first steps into this mysterious and oh so appealing new world of imagery. Since then, I have mostly worked with 120-film in an old bellows camera turned into a very wide-angled pinhole camera. But lately I started using other cameras as well; film canister cameras and some commercial pinhole cameras such as the amazing anamorph Abelson Scope camera. The pinhole camera is a tool that allows me to create images that I can imagine - but not always see. But most of the time it is a tool that helps me a lot in the image-creating, since it involves a great deal of chance. I seldom know exactly what the images will look like - which quite often make them a lot better than they had been if I had worked mainly from my own plans. I also really just love opening the camera, seeing the light flowing into it, creating a unique image - an image that can never be repeated... (I just hope the exposure is somewhat correct!
Pinhole photography is magic. With a small box that slowly collects time and light you can make the most amazing images. This slower and more contemplative form of photography is a welcome detour from the megapixels and digital imaging technology of my "day job" simply because it it so wonderfully non-tech. The process is a throwback to the way photographers first made images back in the mid 1800s and I appreciate this connection to the early history of photography. Intellectually, I also love the fact that this image-making "technology" was written about back in the time of Aristotle, and even earlier (they just didn't have the ability to record the images back then). For me, photographing with a pinhole camera is as much about the experience of making the image as it is about the finished photograph. My memories of venturing into the world to create pinhole photos are as cherished as the actual images that I collect in that amazing magic box.
