Pincycling the memories

Wayne Martin Berger, ‘Third Eye’ Pinhole Camera (photo: boyofblue.com)

Written by Lorna Barnshaw

Don’t have the heart to throw out that pile of ‘memories’, that ‘junk’ building up in the corner...?

You have heard of upcycling no doubt, transforming the old into the new and innovative. Well how about ‘pincycling’ (I thought it deserved a name)? Transform these unused items and memories into a memory capturing machine, the camera, the pinhole camera. Simple.



We are redesigning the past for a remarkable future. As ‘up-cycling’ gains popularity and interest we are seeing old and obsolete items transformed into new and innovative products.

What surprised me most is the rise in the interest in film photography, more specifically within the vintage craze, which has turned its attention particularly to lomography. There is a new desire for the previously unwanted light leaks and the vinaigrette look, to the extent that digital is trying to replicate the appearance. For years I feared that digital photography was completely removing the use or need for film photography, causing a massive reduction in sales and production; a product that has lasted over a 100 years was about to die out.

Wayne Martin Berger

Film is now loved not for its clarity, perfection or realism but for its imperfections, for its light leaks, for its grain and its distortion. When the camera was invented, photo-realistic painters were out of business, they merely couldn’t compete, instead they retaliated with abstract art, they created compositions that the camera could not. Now it was time for film photography to retaliate.

Jochen Dietrich. Pinhole at each hour mark, taking photographs at hourly intervals (photo: pinholeresource.com)

One the most amazing developments is the interest in pinhole photography. It enables the photographer to create their own unique camera with ease and with flare. There are thousands of designs with a thousand more possibilities but I come to you today with a small selection to get imaginations running and designs plotting.

Miroslav Tichy (tichyocean.com)

The camera above was made in the 60’s by Miroslav Tichy, a camera that served him well from its creation until 1985. Although in appearance the design may be compared to a pile of rotting rubbish, in execution and results the camera was a dream, or at least to a creative photographer trying to push photography past simple perfect ‘point and shoot’ snapshots. Below is an example of one of Tinchy's photographs produced by this remarkable camera with a toilet tube lens and plexiglass polished with toothpaste and cigarette ashes!

Miroslav Tichy, Photograph No.3

The result? Well the result is by no means a high definition, crystal clear photograph but instead a dreamy, romantic and beautiful work of art.

Tichy stated that “Photography is painting with light! The blurs, the spots, those are errors! But the errors are part of it, they give it poetry and turn it into painting. And for that you need as bad a camera as possible! If you want to be famous, you have to do whatever you're doing worse than anyone else in the whole world.”

I hope you are beginning to see that the pinhole camera is not about orthodox photography, in fact it runs as far as it can from all conventionalities and norms both in design and outcome.

Italian artist Francesco Capponi is perfect example of this maverick yearning, especially with his delightfully strange ‘Pinhegg’ camera.

Francesco Capponi, 'Pinhegg' (francescocapponi.it)

Yes it is a pinhole camera that is an egg, or at least was an egg until its transformation into the wonderful ‘Pinhegg’. The artist has made pinhole cameras from various everyday items, including hats and miniscule pine nuts! He constantly pushes our perceptions of photography, bringing the realisation that it is not the mass produced camera that cause the magic of a photograph, but instead the easily acquired ability to transform an object into a remarkable device with little cost or knowledge, armed with just a few simple guidelines. His cameras even produce some pretty cool images.

Francesco Capponi, ‘Pinhegg’ (francescocapponi.it)

An egg no doubt makes one creative camera, but artist Justin Quinnell goes one step further and transforms his own mouth into a camera, or at least he creates a camera mouth piece. The photographs are snapshots of Quinnell’s daily encounters as seen through the mouth and the results are no doubt interesting. The world as we see it is shifted. I really recommend you visit his website it has some amazing photographs in addition to some exciting useful tips: http://www.pinholephotography.org/.

Justin Quinnell, Mouth Piece

Justin Quinnell, Mouth Piece Photographs

But who is to say that you need to make a camera to take photographs?

This next ‘camera’ is made entirely from light sensitive paper, folded and formed in such a manner that the paper becomes both the photograph and the device. Photographer Thomas Hudson Reeve has taken the concept of the disposable camera to new realms. Not only that but the results are the most beautiful yet! The imprints of sharp cityscapes in a geometrical form with hazy blues, oranges and deep purples create magical and spectacular photographs.

Thomas Hudson Reed (papercams.com)

Thomas Hudson Reed (papercams.com)

So lets sum up. What you need is some creativity, some basic knowledge and film or light sensitive paper and you are on your way!

Follow this link to download one of the cool camera templates from Corbis Readymech Cameras: http://corbis.readymech.com/en

Corbis Readymech Camera Templates

Here are a few simple steps to get you on your way from Andrew Anderson: http://www.andrewsanderson.com/docs/Pinhole.pdf