The camera is made from parts; using the body from a fake “virgin” 6X6 camera and the shutter is from a Kodak brownie folding camera.

Flickr: themumbaiforce

ABOUT THIS IMAGE:

The camera is a 140-degree panning camera that I made for my former photography professor, Kate Leonard, this past summer. It features a motorized arm that turns it from side to side, a removable top that seals out light with no need for tape, a tripod mount on the bottom, and a magnetic “lens” cap. Back in April of last year, Kate approached me about making her a camera. Pinhole photography was very much my thing during her photography class, and she said she was interested in commissioning me to build her a camera. During her class I had experimented with pinhole panoramas by taking six photos, each one turned 60-degrees relative to the previous photo. This created a pseudo panorama when lined up, which was interesting, but I wanted something better. My goal in making this camera was to make a camera that could capture a perfect 180-degree panorama by having the pinhole itself rotate relative to the paper behind it. The hardest part in making the camera was accurately centering the pinhole so that the pinhole would rotate on axis and not produce a blurry image (not having access to a machine shop, the pinhole is not perfectly centered, which is why the image is not super sharp). I also fell short of my 180-degree goal, but if I adjusted how much cloth I used around the rotating portion, and adjusted the length of the arm, I would be able to achieve close to 180-degrees. One quirk that I did not expect is the peanut shape of the photo, which you can see in Gasworks2. This is because of the way the arm rotates the pinhole – it rotates slower at the edges (increasing exposure time) and faster through the middle (decreasing exposure time). This particular photo, Gasworks2, was a five minute exposure on a very bright day.

This camera was made as a bit of a showcase during a pinhole workshop i was giving at my job. It has 4 pinholes, each with their own shutter. So i have quite some freedom in how i want the image exposed with all of them. The rear plane is inclined to give the image some inherent distortion. Takes photographic paper as medium. The enclosed image has an exposure time of about 25 mins on Ilford paper.

The camera is a matchbox pinhole. The film used is a Fuji Sensia 100 ISO, and the exposure time is about 1 or 2 seconds. The photo was taken on the parking of a commercial center in a suburban area near Paris, France. I enjoy very much the pinhole technique, and I discovered how to make a pinhole in a matchbox on the internet a few years ago.

Fin de l’année 2010, je me lance dans la construction d’un appareil photo à sténopé utilisant de la pellicule 120 pour un format 6×6. Au lieu d’acheter un appareil “tout fait, le plaisir sera plus grand d’utiliser un appareil de ma propre fabrication. Je décide de fabriquer cet appareil photo à sténopé en bois contre-plaqué épaisseur 5 mm. Mieux qu’un long discours, place aux photos.

ABOUT THIS IMAGE:

Hand made, based on the Populist, but I stretched the length in order to make panoramic pinhole photography. I call it “Le Populus”. The photo is a scan of an hand made print with traditionnal method.

Rue de l’Abbé Girard
Lith print on Fomatone 532 II paper
Fotospeed LD20 developer

Thank you to all the artists around the world who submitted work. We were impressed with the breadth of styles, ideas, and images we received. We can’t wait to show them to you but we have decided to take it one day at a time. During the month of June we will be showcasing the most interesting submissions.