Time and light make a photo. I’ve got cameras that cost thousands and lenses to match, all packed with the latest tech. But really, all I need is time, light, and a soda can.
Lately, I’ve been playing around with a homemade pinhole camera made from a Starry can. Simple setup—one can with the top removed, another as a cover. A 5×5-inch piece of light-sensitive photographic paper gets placed inside in complete darkness. Tape over the pinhole, set it where I want, and let time do its thing.
The shot above was taken at the dam at Choate Park, tucked away in a bush. I pulled the tape and left it for seven days. Some water got in, and it probably needed a bit longer, but it worked—a solid test run.
The light passing through the pinhole burns a negative image onto the paper. To develop it, I photograph the paper, invert it to a positive in Photoshop, and clean it up. It’s not a perfect image—nowhere close. And that’s what makes it so cool. A raw, unpredictable, chemical-free capture of light and time.
tr/trp
