Pinhole (Workshop 101), Make Your Own Camera Obscura! (2007)

Saturday, April 21, 2007 at 1:00 PM

"Who would believe that so small a space could contain the image of all the universe? O mighty process! What talent can avail to penetrate a nature such as these? What tongue will it be that can unfold so great a wonder? Verily, none! This it is that guides the human discourse to the considering of divine things. Here the figures, here the colors, here all the images of every part of the universe are contracted to a point. O what a point is so marvelous!"

--Leonardo Da Vinci's comments on the "Camera Obscura" (Dark Room), or what we today call the pinhole camera.

Pinhole Photography 101
Instructor: Boz Killebrew

Introduction: The objective of the class is to send people home with a working pinhole camera and photoS taken with the camera. The class will be broken up into two segments. The first will deal with how to make an effective, quality pinhole camera. It will cover common household items needed and a step-by-step process for constructing a pinhole camera. The second segment will deal with actual shooting of pinhole photography.

Day 1: Construction of a pinhole camera. Students should bring with them to the first day of class : A Quaker Oats box, cigar box or a similar quality light tight box; An empty aluminum soda can; and 1 sheet of black poster board. The instructor will provide: Black tape; flat black spray paint; pins; scissors; glue; and an exacto knife.
A. The basics of pinhole photography: The basic concept of a pinhole camera will be explained to the class. I will show examples of pinhole cameras, both homemade and purchased and some examples of work done with a pinhole camera.

B. How to make a pinhole camera: Students will be provided with a short instruction guide for making pinhole cameras. We will then proceed to construct our cameras.

THE FEE: $30.00 TOTAL IS FOR BOTH CLASSES. EACH CLASS IS TWO HOURS

DATES: APRIL 21-APRIL 22

Invention of pinhole camera
Very early in history (as far back as 500 B.C.), Greeks such as Aristotle and Euclid wrote on naturally-occurring rudimentary pinhole cameras, for example through the slits of wicker baskets and the crossing of leaves, which can leave very small spaces through which light may travel. At the same time, the Chinese (Mo Ti and Chuang Chou, for example) were experimenting with and writing on the phenomenon. The aperture (pinhole) for instance, was referred to by Mo Ti in ca. 420 B.C. as the "collecting place". Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon during the 13th century commented on the pinhole camera. Men like Gemma-Frisius, Alhazen, and Porta between 1000 and 1600 wrote on the pinhole camera and began to explain in more details why the images were upside down. Pinhole images allowed the safe viewing of eclipses because the viewer was seeing the pinhole image and not the eclipse itself.

I pesonnally get very excited to be able to find wonderful instructors like Boz since learning the basic is extremely important and that's exactly how I learned to photograph. This is a fun class and perhaps some of you will stick to it and get really creative and create some amazing imaging.