May 2009 Cape Clear Island Slow Photo Workshop

These are some of the images captured at the workshop last weekend. Each participant made their own coffee can camera and then subsequently experimented with it to see what would happen - Something definitely happens with these images that is quite compelling. I think I am missing a few images that are still on Cape, if I get them I will load them on also.

May 2009 Cape Clear Island

The May Bank holiday weekend passed in a frenzy of activity, making cameras and photographs. Thanks to Catherine Ryan who co facilitated. I hope the pictures below are a reminder of the fun we all had.

Pinhole on Cape Clear Island

I am really looking foward to next week. I have been invited to Cape Clear Island to do a pinhole camera workshop over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

I am busy assembling materials wondering what it is that I will inevitably forget to bring with me and whether I will be able to source its alternate on the island. Cape Clear is about 40 mins by ferry and 15 minutes by car from the nearest hardware shop so you can see why I am a bit concerned.

The workshop will be contribute to a larger project being run on the Island by Bernadette Cotter. My part is to facilitate those with an interest in alternative photography to create pinhole images that will be shown alongside other work.

I have been scavenging materials from many sources. I have the basic Lidl coffee can, but also some cans appropriated from the civic amenity site in Macroom.

I think that this may be one of the last pinhole workshops that I do as disposal of the toxic corrosive chemicals used in developing photographs is such a problem...unless I can find a better way to develop images, I intend to concentrate on solargraphy.

Solargraph from Kerry

Margaret Fitzgerald

There are still a few more solargraphs to collect. The one above came from Keel in Co. Kerry - thanks to the collaborators there. It is a really interesting image to look at, as the horizon is repeated twice. This probably happened because the camera was moved during the period of exposure - another happy accident. I haven't got the exact details of the period of exposure and must chase this up.

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!

Solstice Solargraphy

This solargraph was exposed for 6 months using a film can, It was collected in very wet weather . When I brought it home, I took the paper out of the cannister to dry in the hot press. The changed orientation of the sheet caused the image to slip in the wet surface, almost entirely obscuring the sun track - I am not unhappy with this - the surface is richly textured giving a caustic appearance.

Solstice Solargraphy

Harvest time has come. Even though we are in the middle of winter, my crop is ripe. Six months ago at the Summer Solstice, I put out loads of pinhole cameras. Now today on the Winter solstice, its time to bring them home. These are the initial results and I am really pleased.










This solargraph was taken using a Sharwoods curry can , with the photographic paper wrapped cylindrically around the can. The pinhole was on the cap and laid horizontally about 6ft off the ground. I can't decide which I prefer positive or negative.





This solargraph was taken using a coffee can pinhole camera from Camden Road, Crosshaven facing into Cork Harbour. I probably had it pointing a little far North as there is little evidence of sun tracks.

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.

the forbidden and the impossible

"in a way I try to photograph, what cannot be photographed"

Barbara Ess - Pinhole Photographer

People often discuss contemporary art wondering what does it mean? French philosopher, Jacques Ranciere proposes;

"a concept of artistic modernity, which lodges the forbidden within the impossible, by making modern art as a whole, art constitutively dedicated to the witnessing of the non representable" p15, Rancier J 2006 "The Ethical Turn of Aesthetics and Politics" Critical Horizons 7:1 pp1-20

"I Am Not This Body" photographs by Barabara Ess, essays by Barbara Ess, Michael Cunningham, Thurston Moore, and Guy Armstrong

Solargraphs so far

This is a collection of negative and positive solargraphs in an experimental phase.

Click on the images above to see them enlarged

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.

Camera Obscura

Tanya Kiang, Director of the Gallery of Photography, Templebar, Dublin wrote a great essay exploring the history of the camera obscura as a prelude to building one in Dublin. The article

Dark Wonder

was written for Circa magazine in 2001. The Camera Obscura had not been built when I visited in June 2008, so I guess it will take a little longer now that we are crunched.

She cites the following artists who use camera obscura in their work.

Paul Brewer

Jacqueline Griggs

Peter Richards

Lindsay Seers

Abelardo Morell

Barbara Ess

Richard Torchia

f/stops

Photographer, Marc Holden, gave a great explanation today on calculating exposure times.

When an f stop is halved, the area of aperture is reduced but the value increases (counter intuitively). The diagram demonstrates this and the relationship with exposure time.

diagram reference

Using a light metre on his Hasselblad, we determined that in the light conditions prevailing we needed an exposure of - 100 ASA film for 0.25 sec at 4.5fstop

but we were using an old Meagher camera like the one pictured below

To extrapolate the values taking into account we were using a paper negative of 6 ASA.

Adding 25% for reciprocity failure the total time required is 5 seconds.

Reciprocity failure is a characteristic of 'slow' film and the following table gives an indication of the compensation required.

X-ray photography

I am trying to work something out in my head -

I want to print the solargraphs in a way that preserves there delicate luminosity and also in a way that is consistent with my research aims.

I have been thinking about printing to film - ideally the weight and size of an x-ray - so maybe why not an x-ray. Trying to find out information about this type of printing is difficult. Below are the references I have found...so far.





Artist Nick Veasey has a great website and his worked is featured along with other artists in Cult Case an online culture and art magazine that did a special feature on xray photography. The interdisciplinary crossover of Floral Radiography also provides some great images.

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.