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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Studio Artists Expose Dynamic Vision

Walk down to the quiet center of Johnson Memorial Building, and you will stumble across an artistic gem: the Pinhole Photography showcase, which lasts until Thursday, Nov. 6 and is bound to intrigue its viewers. The product of one month’s worth of experimentation by Fletcher Professor of Studio Art John Huddleston’s ART 0327, this exhibit features photography in its purest, most primitive form.

Though the pinhole technique – the earliest, most basic type of photography – has been largely overrun by more efficient digital methods, the exhibit proves to be both engaging and accessible to modern onlookers. Each student chose four works to put on display, forming an eclectic collection of images that showcase everything from bikes to self-portraits to natural scenery.

A pinhole camera is a small, light-tight black box with a tiny hole on one side. A 4-by-5-inch piece of light-sensitive negative paper is placed on the wall opposite the pinhole. As light from a scene passes through the tiny hole, a reversed image of the scene is projected onto the film. Despite the simple structure of pinhole cameras, however, the process that goes behind each photograph is quite laborious.

Unlike digital cameras, pinhole cameras need an extended amount of exposure time in order to record a scene. Depending on the artistic vision of the photographer and the amount of light available, capturing a quality image can take anywhere from 30 seconds to several hours. For example, due to higher levels of brightness in outside areas, outdoor shots typically require less exposure time than indoor shots. Images may turn out blurry if a human subject accidentally moves within the exposure period; thus, exposure times for portraits only last between several seconds to a few minutes. In double-exposure shots, the photographer can record one scene, cover the pinhole with a shutter, alter the position of human subjects within the frame, and then remove the shutter to capture a second image – resulting in a final, composite image of two scenes melded seamlessly into one.

The time-consuming nature of pinhole photography shapes a unique relationship between the photographer and the subject. Emily Cavanagh ’14.5, a student in Huddleston’s class, was struck by the sense of vulnerability in people as they remained perfectly still for minutes at a time. She would try not to look at them, preferring instead to read them stories. As a result, the process that went behind crafting each scene held as much value as the end product, if not more so.

“There was this guy in my class with cool hair, so I asked him if I could take some portraits of him,” Cavanagh said. “It was the first time we had ever spoken. I read him his Mayan astrology during one of the photos. We were sword-fighting in another one. I really got to know him in a pretty intimate setting.”

As evidenced by the blurry edges, chemical stains and light damage visible in various works of the exhibit, perfection in pinhole photography is difficult to achieve. There lies a certain beauty in these photographic flaws, however. As Huddleton noted,  “Sometimes accidents can be very productive in photography.”

These accidents, which Huddleton described as “markers of the process,” can be observed in a blurry, close-up shot of an eye, which appears to be half-open, half-closed due to the subject’s blinking movement during the exposure period. In another image, a chemical stain, the result of an accident in the dark room, decorates the sky like a wisp of dark smoke moving fluidly through the air.

Huddleton explained the effect of blurriness on one student’s photograph of a man in a car. While we have seen a lot of pictures similar to this photograph before, Huddleton identified the lack of focus as the transformative element that changes the meaning behind the image.

“Car and man become anonymous,” Huddleton said. “The attempt at man-in-car stereotype becomes subverted by the camera. It becomes a stereotype of the stereotype.”

One of Cavanagh’s works serves as another example of the artistic value of photographic accidents. Featuring a girl in a black bra with a lampshade on her head, the image embodies what Cavanagh described as a “clichéd hyper-sexualization.”

“The photo is a little sad,” she said. “It’s like her identity doesn’t matter, but she’s sexualized because she has a bra on.”

Because the subject moved a little bit during the exposure process, the backdrop is much clearer than her body. This lack of focus serves to further dehumanize the subject. Such imperfections stimulate the onlooker’s mind and add a new, enigmatic dimension to the photo.

The varying perspectives of the world that the students present through their photographs provide onlookers with a fleeting but intimate glimpse into their minds. The result is an exhibit filled with evocative and fascinating images that speak volumes about the human experience. It is photography in its most raw form. Pinhole images may not fall under the category of conventionally beautiful art, but what they lack in pristineness they make up for in depth.


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