To me pinhole photography is going back to the basics of photography. Not just because the equipment can be cheap and hand made, but because it proves the point that it doesn’t matter which equipment you use to take good photographs. It’s all about the photograph itself and using the tools at hand to achieve that.
I love the way the pinhole camera records the scene in a dreamy, almost ghostly manner. The longer exposure times required blur any movement and you can really see time passing by.
Pinhole photography is a refreshing balance to digital photography as it requires so much more planning, thinking how to take the photograph and of course waiting. All my pinhole cameras so far have been film based and to avoid wasting too much film the photographs must be properly planned before hand, the camera aimed carefully and exposure time calculated. All this slows you down, but I don’t believe that this is a bad thing; this makes you think before taking the photo, what you are taking it of and why. I believe this makes me a better photographer, whether using film or digital.
One of my favourite pinhole cameras is made from a matchbox and uses 35mm negative film. It’s not the simplest of cameras, but not far off either. However, I wanted one which can take more than one photo before changing the film in the dark room.
To make one all you need is a matchbox, 35mm film, an empty film container to feed the exposed film into and lots of electrical tape to make it all lightproof. There are good instructions at http://www.matchboxpinhole.com/ to help you build your own.
The pinhole itself can be done on any thin material. I made mine with the aluminium from a drinks can, but some use thin copper plate or even plain kitchen tin foil. There are plenty of instructions in the Internet on how to make the perfect pinhole, so I won’t go into details here.
I’ve also bought a pinhole camera; the Holga 120 WPC, which use 120 roll film instead of 35mm film and produces negatives up to 12 x 6cm. This is the beauty of this camera; huge negatives which scan well to big prints.
If you forget the obvious size and film format differences between these two cameras, the end result is different as well. The photos from the matchbox camera feel much more intimate than the ones from the Holga. You can see the difference, if you look through my Pinhole landscapes, cityscapes & seascapes Collection.
