The year-long pinhole.

Back in high school when it came time to choose the Universities we were to apply to and we were told to figure out our future...I had not a single clue as to what I wanted. But after some thought, one singular thing stood out in my mind, my love for photography. I had taken every photography course that was offered to me, and I instantly fell in love with it.

Fast-forward six years into the future, and here I am today, with a University education under my belt and some pieces of paper to prove it. I followed my love for the arts and studied media and creative photography. 

I have used and own many professional digital and film cameras, but one of my most favourite is one that I built. Yes, built. It is called the pinhole camera.

A pinhole camera is a small lightproof box with a pin-sized hole, covered by a small flap of material for a shutter, in one side that allows light to filter through. On the opposite side of the hole emulsion photo paper is placed, that is where the image is captured.

This diagram shows how a pinhole camera works. The image is inverted when the flap is moved out of the way to uncover the pinhole. Just like how our eyes see the world upside down but our retinas turn it right side up.

These cameras can be made out of anything. I made min out of a gift box from the dollar store. The inside needed to be painted black and every single area covered to make sure no light leaked in. If it did, that would cause fogging on the paper.

When the image is first exposed onto the paper, it is in a negative form. The longer the exposure, or the “shutter” flap is left open, more detail is captured in the image. I then had to quickly close the flap, bring the camera into the darkroom and process it with chemicals, the negative form appeared. I would then place a new piece of photo paper down, place the negative face down onto it, and shine light from an exposure machine onto my papers. And voila! A positive is created.

I dug up through my giant box of school things I have saved, and I was surprised to find my old pinhole camera and some examples I had taken back in the day.

The main reason for all of this pinhole talk is to inform about an amazing experiment that photographer Michael Chrisman performed. His pinhole camera was aimed at the Toronto skyline…for an entire year!

The Toronto Star covered the story of the breathtaking photograph Michael produced. He left the camera there from Jan. 1, 2011 until Dec 31, 2011. He had tried a few times before, but the cameras were stolen or moved, so this go round he hid it. 

After seeing what he has done with this simple sort of camera, I am very tempted to try it out myself and see what I might produce. You don’t have to be a professional or an expert to make one of these yourself; I encourage everyone to give it a shot!