Pinhole PhotographyGregg Kemp



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Pinhole photography allows me to create images of things that my eyes do not see, at least not in the same way.

A pinhole camera can record motion, changes in light, and changes in time in a way that is different than what the human mind sees.

It can collect and record all the things happening in its field of vision over a period of time. It is the vision of time that most intrigues me.

Making pinhole photographs also changes how I look at things around me. I start imagining how something might look from a vantage point that I might not be able to easily place a conventional camera. Or I imagine how something might look through one of my cameras.

But, no matter what I imagine, the photograph that comes out is almost always different than I imagined. And, if I'm very, very lucky, I find things in these photographic recordings that I was not able to "see" with my eyes.

I have been making images with pinhole cameras since the early 1970's, but knew very few pinhole artists until the late 1990's. The emergence of the Internet has changed all that.

One of the most exciting things to happen to me in pinhole photography is finding other pinhole artists and helping to find new audiences for this art form through the Internet. We live in all parts of the world, and there are so many wonderful and diverse visions among us. Now, we are getting to know one another and one another's work.