Exhibition Pinhole

After all the experiments with (small) pinholes we had, we decided to build a bigger one. To be honest, when compared with the previous ones, this one is huge :)
Think it is really good so, let's go outside and test it.

PinHole Cameras

After working with cyanotypes I started to be interested with early photographic experiments what lead me to pinhole cameras.

Basically, a pinhole camera is a lens less camera that works as a Camera Obscura where you place a film or photographic paper to take a picture (so, it’s a camera without batteries and lens).

The good thing about it is that it’s so easy to do that any box you have at home can be transformed into one as long as it’s lightproof (not to expose the photographic paper on the wrong time).

You can read more on how it works both the Camera Obscura here and the Pinhole Camera here.

The negative of my first photo came out a bit out of focus due to the wind but, overall, I was very, very happy with it.  

After I got the negative it was time to flip the image horizontaly and to invert the colours. The result was this:

My very first Pinhole Photo.

Since this one, I already built 3 more cameras of different sizes and took more pictures with them that I intend to develop and post them here as soon as I can.

Isaac's Cyanotypes

After all the research we been doing I thought to have a go and do it myself to learn the how to.

I ordered the chemicals from SiverPrint, a digital scale from Argos, "borrowed" some gloves from my work and bought some watercolour paper and tape. Simple. The trickiest part was to mix the solution A to the solution B in equal parts without the proper material.

After the first experiment I learned that the exposure times need to be of about one hour to allow for a good detailed image (which means that my first try, that was of around 30 minutes, was too dark and not very detailed) although the intensity of the sun is also a variable that not always works depending on the time.

I have done a few more after with a much better result. So, here are the pics of my experiments :)

After achieving a good result I decided to use another technique to modify the colours of the print. This technique is called Tea Toning and was used to give the print a brownish colour instead of the usual blue.

I prepared a strong solution (?lol?) of about a litre of water with 8 to 10 tea bags (normal variety, cheap Tesco kind) and let the print absorve the tea for about 2 hours. Different papers absorve the tannin of the tea differently, so it's up to you to keep on checking the prints until you reach the desired tone.

Cyanotype Prints

Cyanotype is a photographic printing method in which the end result is made in tones of blue.

For a better description of the process and history check here. The interest on this process comes from the fact that what gets printed is the light and all the shadows are kept white (or lighter tones of blue) and how easy it is to actually print something because you can just do photograms of objects placed on top of the light sensitive paper.

Shigeo Fukuda

Shigeo Fukuda was one of most important artists to play with the arrangement of objects to create images with shadows. He was doing sculptural objects since the mid 80's influencing the works of most shadow artists up until now. Working with forks, knives, spoons, paper clips and other materials, he managed to create a unique style of shadow sculpture. Enjoy the video.

Larry Kagan

this guy is just amazing. he bents and welds metal in crazy looking shapes that when lit from a certain angle create images not at all expected. go and check out is website and find a bit more about this american sculptur and the amazing art that he does.