Sherkin Island Community Arts Project

This blog will be a little quite over the next few months, as I have created a new blog for the Sherkin Island Community Arts Project -
A Cosmopolitan Cosmology, which can be found here

Artist in the Community 2009

A Cosmopolitan Cosmology is the name I gave to the next phase of the solargraphy project initiated on Sherkin last year. The project revolves around the idea that it is relevant to all people at all times in all places, but most especially those who have a link to Sherkin Island.

It will explore space and time through the process of solargraphy and strengthen relationships between those who live on the Island and those in whom the Island lives (although they may live many miles apart).

The project application was made in association with Sherkin Island Development Society and was awarded a second round of funding by the Arts Council through the Artist in the Community Scheme managed by Create.

I have setup an initial blog for this http://sherkinisland.blogspot.com

Last of the Solargraphs from Finland

Michael Stephens 28-09-08 21-12-08

Michael Stephens 28- 09-08 21-12-08

Tara O'Donoghue 28-09-08 21-12-08

These are the last of the unprocessed 35mm film cannisters I sent to Finland. I think the results do warrant the wait. There seems to be more colour in some of the images and this may be down to the use of different scanners - another piece of research for the future.

I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone involved in the project - it was great working with all you pinholers.

Thanks to the Arts Council who funded the project through the Artist in the Community Scheme managed by Create. Katherine Atkinson was a great support there, Tarja Trygg of the University of Art & Design, Helsinki and last but not least Sherkin Island Development Society and their development worker Matthew Stephens.

Solargraphs returned from Finland

Tarja Trygg from the University of Art & Design, Helsinki returned the first batch of solargraphs sent to her after the winter solstice. These solargraphs were taken using plastic 35mm film cannisters and I could sit and look at them for hours.

Maggie O'Reilly 28-09-08 21-12-08

Jo Jefferies 28-09-08 21-12-08

Sherkin Island National School, Senior Class 03-10-08 21-12-08

Sherkin Island National School, Senior Class 03-10-08 21-12-08

Kordula Packard 28-09-08 21-12-08

There are two possible explanations why there are no sun tracks . a) the film cannister was was probably pointing too far north to catch the sun, or b) if it was facing south, it has too much foreground and not enough sky to catch the sun's path.

Sheila O'Sullivan 28-06-08 21-12-08

Sheila O'Sullivan 28-06-08 21-12-08

Sue O'Hanlon 20-06-08 21-12-08

Sherkin Island Solargraphy

We had a great day yesterday and were very excited to finally reveal the solargraphs that had been exposing since late September.

Terry Farnell

Micheal Stephens

Tara O'Donoghue

Conor O'Riordan

Sherkin Island Artist in the Community Workshop 4th January 2009

The last workshop in this series will be held next Sunday. Looking back to last September its hard to believe how much has been achieved in such a short time.

• making pinhole cameras
• learning basic dark room techniques
• printing some great images
  
• setting out solargraph cans
• portraiture session with the old meagher camera

Whats next ? Well, I have already collected and scanned some solargraphs which are really impressive. Next Sunday I hope to scan the rest of them and put them up on the web.

I will collect and send the remaining 35mm film cans to Finland for the Global Map of Solargraphy project.

If people are willing we can turn the dispensary into a darkroom for one last pinhole session.

I am preparing documentation of our work, so we can spend some time selecting favourite images to be included in the photobook.

So a busy day on Sunday and looking forward to it.

Artist in the Community Solstice Solargraphs

Solargraph by Mags Reilly Sherkin Island 28-09-08 - 21-12-08

Solargraph by Jo Jefferies Sherkin Island 28-08-08 -21-12-08

Congratulations Mags & Jo, your solargraph images are really great. I hope you like them too!

Sherkin Artist in the Community Dec 2008

Ok I know I am a bit slow getting these images up. I developed the images straight away when I got home and was really disappointed with the negs. With all the chaos of working in the office and moving into the hall. the paper must have got flashed - so despite all our efforts to use the meagher correctly - we were foiled.

Anyway eventually i did get round to scanning the images and to be honest the positives are much better than I could have hoped from first glance at the negs - one or two images did not come out at all.

So now I am determined to come in on the 4th of January on the 10:30am ferry and with your help set up a darkroom so that we can get immediate feedback on what we are doing.

Sherkin Island Artist in the Community Workshop 23 Nov 2008

Our next Artist in the community workshop on Sherkin will be at 2pm, Sunday 23rd November

At the last workshop participants learned how to use a pinhole camera and saw that you can arrive at some pretty amazing images with very basic technology.

At the next workshop we will look more closely at how this process works using a studio pinhole camera.

We will be using a late 19th century studio camera manufactured by Patrick Meagher, Southampton Bow, London.

I would like to use the camera for what it was intended - portraiture -

Participants please take a few moments between now and then to think how you would like to be photographed, bearing in mind that you will need to be still for around 5 seconds!

The Meagher camera design had a movable back focusing screen connected by a bellows to a lens board. For storage the back was moved by rack and pinion to the front and the hinged baseboard lifted up to protect the focusing screen and if present a side gate was swung across to protect everything that was secured in position with a slotted strut and screw.

p247 Encyclopedia of Nineteenth Century Photography, John Hannavy, 2008

This is quite a unique camera and we are fortunate to have it on loan from Alison Trim.

Pinhole Images by Kordula Packard Sherkin Island

These images were created using coffee can pinhole cameras on 27 & 28 September as as part of an Arts Council sponsored artist in the community Project on Sherkin Island. A pinhole camera was made by each participant and so each had their own unique piece of equipment. The paper negatives were developed in a temporary darkroom on the Island and then scanned into photo editing software to be inverted to a positive image. No other digital alterations have been made. They are as you see them.

Pinhole images from Jo Jefferies Sherkin Island

These images were created using coffee can pinhole cameras over one weekend at the end of September on Sherkin Island. The paper negatives were developed in a temporary darkroom on the Island and then scanned into photo editing software to be inverted to a positive image. No other digital alterations have been made.

Sherkin Island National School

Imagine making your own camera out of a shoe box... a coffee can or ...even a teapot?

You can make a camera from anything with a few materials and lots of imagination.

Here are some examples of pinhole cameras made from ;

So how does a pinhole camera work?


We see things because light from the sun is reflected from the surface of objects through the pupil of the eye and an image is created on our light sensitive retina. Brightness and colour is determined by the nature of the object.

A pinhole camera is very like the human eye in the way that it works. It does not have a lens, it only has a very small aperture (hole) through which an image is projected on sensitised material (film or paper).

Light travels in straight lines through the pinhole aperture and is projected onto light sensitive material at the back of the camera.

The human eye works in exactly the same way - but our brain intereprets the upside down image and puts it back up the right way.





Note that the tree is projected upside down.






So is the rabbit!

This diagram shows what the inside of a pinhole camera looks like.

Photographic paper is placed opposite the pinhole and when exposed to light forms an image then it is processed with developing fluids.

Now look at some pinhole images made on Sherkin Island.

Another form of pinhole photography is called solargraphy.

Today we are going to mount some cameras for a solargraphy projectand leave them exposing for a three month period.

We will collect them on December 21st at the Winter solstice when the sun is at its lowest height in the sky. Hopefully the camera will record the sun track as it sinks in the sky.

We will send the cameras to Finland to be part of a global solargraphy project.

The best laid plans...

I had a lovely afternoon at Sherkin national school. The children were marvellous, asking questions and thinking carefully about the complex processes involved and all without the aid of diagrams or photos.

I thought I had covered all eventualities. I had checked with the teacher that the school had an internet connection and data projector - which they did, but I had forgotten about net nanny. Both the blog - with all the information and photos that I had prepared - and the solargarphy website were not allowed to be viewed. Next time I will bring data on a memory stick.

Fortunately, I had brought quite a few cameras with me. An antique bellows camera which I have on loan from Alison Trim, the SLR Pinhole, a standard digital camera and some sample pinhole cameras (coffee cans and film cans) and photographic paper so that the children could actually see and feel the materiasl involved. I also had some images that had been made at the workshop last weekend and a catalogue of Harry Moores work on Cork docklands.

The children enthusiastically selected places for 4 coffee can cameras and two film can cameras to be mounted for a 12 week solargraphy exposure. Fingers crossed now that they are not knocked by footballs and sliotars!

I am looking forard to going back to the school in December as close as I can to the winter solstice.

More Sherkin Pinhole Images

Orlaorange joins the team

Welcome Orla Orange!

Glad you managed to negotiate the blog invite. You are the first team member to join. You should be able to make posts to the blog now. It might be useful if you want feedback on your own photos as well as on the photos taken in Sherkin last weekend.

On Sunday I gave a very hasty demonstration on how to scan negatives and invert them to positive images using Adobe Photoshop. I am hoping that the people involved in the project will share resources to scan the remaining images and send them to me to post on the blog or post them directly themselves.

If there are problems scanning the images let me know and I will see if I can help sort it out.

The People Behind the Cameras

A lot of work went into making the images displayed in the last post. Here are some photos to remind us of what it was all about and who was involved.

Sherkin Island 27 September 2008

We will be back again on Sunday 23 November to discuss how we can progress the project and again on Sunday 21 December to harvest the solargraph cans.

Keep a watch on this website for more references and hopefully comments and suggestions from the group.

More Sherkin Pinhole Images