Aristotle, Euclid, Arabian scholar Hassan ibn Hassan of the 10th century, and other artists, like Leonardo da Vinci, also used the camera obscura. The same simple law of optics applies. When a box of any size is blackened and the wall covering is pierced with a small hole, the focused image will appear on the opposite wall in an upside-down position. Pinhole photographers now make all kinds of pinhole cameras in creating all kinds of images. Artists, like Jessica Fergusson, use a pinhole camera to capture something mysterious or unexpected. She believes that this is how memories or dreams work (Meyers).
Photograms can be less manipulated by the artist or camera (Meyers, 2004). This was the discovery of Susannah Hays one rainy winter a few years ago. Photogram techniques are part of the beginners' curriculum on photography and summer camps. But she discovered what appeared to be organic, patterned forms from an otherwise smooth surface. On the other hand, Abelardo Morell uses a large-format view camera to take the image of the upside-down, outside world. He used this in shooting the Empire State Building on a bed in midtown Manhattan, the Chrysler Building on the wall and floor of a New York hotel room, and Central Park upside-down in an office (Meyers).
Alternative uses of x-ray fine art photography are not new, either. Dan Tasker used x-rays in producing images of flowers (Meyers, 2004). But his products were ignored and almost forgotten until found a few years ago. These were recognized as pioneering works and auctioned at attractive prices. Although pinhole photography is not new, it is considered fashionable today. An exhibition by 45 international artists who used pinhole...
There were similar pinhole photography exhibitions in the same year at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Seville, Spain and the Center for Contemporary Arts of Santa Fe. Rotovision published images from artists who used different imaginative cameras under the title, "Adventures with Pinhole and Home-Made Cameras from Tin Cans to Precision Engineering" by John Evans. Pinhole has achieved popularity to the extent that an official Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day was declared on the last Sunday of April (Meyers).
Bibliography
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