My daughter is finishing a semester in London, and we were over there in April to see her, and to see family (I’m American, my husband is English). I took the shot above during another visit in 2011, walking along the Thames one evening, with my Zero 2000 pinhole camera.
As summer approaches and people start taking summer vacations, it brings to mind an interesting adventure we had last July. My husband and I took the train from Toronto to Vancouver. It took four days and had pros and cons. Good things included passing through the Rockies, the dining car, and some friends we made. Bad things were the exceptionally small sleeping cabin (tolerable during the day when the beds were hidden, but very uncomfortable with the bunk beds in place), and the fact that much of Canada is just not that exciting day after day: flat farmland or pine forests. The latter can be beautiful, but the areas around the tracks are understandably prime for harvesting. Still, we are glad we did it. Above is a 20 second pinhole exposure at breakfast on 7-13-12.
This Sunday is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day and I haven’t posted much this month! It was hectic - installing two shows (one all pinhole photography, one including pinhole photography) and then heading to the UK for two weeks. While I was in Scotland I did have a pinhole-related treat. My husband and I visited the Camera Obscura in Edinburgh. It involves lenses and mirrors, so isn’t actually a pinhole camera, but still you get to sit in a giant camera and see the surroundings - from the Edinburgh skyline to people walking on the nearby sidewalks. Above is a photo I took of the guide pointing out something on the image, which projects onto a large concave surface in the middle of the room. Very sharp and colorful. And cool!
It’s been a busy month, and here is my car with most of my pinhole photography show, ready to drive tomorrow to the Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center in Frederick, Maryland. I still have to load the encaustic pieces (in case it freezes tonight - not a good idea for them to freeze?) and a flat screen TV (on which I’ll show a pinhole-based video). The show includes work from my “squaremeals” series, the “amenities” series, amusement parks, and “galaxies.” If anyone is in the area, the opening will be Saturday April 6 from 3-5 in the afternoon. She show closes on Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day (April 28).
I took this self portrait last year on my anniversary (the anniversary of the first lunch I had with my husband). I thought to post a self portrait because I was checking the stats from my website (nancybreslin.com) and it showed that some people found my site by searching for “famous pinhole photography” or “famous pinhole photographers.” I don’t know how famous I am (recognizing that pinhole photography is a small pond), but I’m pleased that Google thinks so!
Most of my pinhole photography is part of a series - such as restaurant meals or amusement parks, or the work I’ve been doing at Winterthur. This is a one-off. We were visiting family in Massachusetts last spring and visited the Emily Dickinson house. I was mostly working with my cell phone, but took this one with my Zero Image pinhole camera.
Here is information on my two April shows. The show at the Delaplaine will be all pinhole, and the one in Wilmington will include pinhole, cell phone photography, and video. If you are in the area, please stop by!
I’m trying something new for an upcoming show. My last post was an image from my upcoming show at the Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center in Frederick, Maryland, but I don’t plan to show these as straight prints. Above shows another image from the series mounted and covered with several layers of encaustic medium. The final piece should be a grid of nine of these. I took an encaustic workshop with Michelle Marcuse several years ago and finally have a project with which that seems to fit.
The show will also include works from several other pinhole series I’ve been working on. Details of my upcoming shows can be found at http://www.nancybreslin.com/exhibitions.html.
In April I’ll be showing images from several of my pinhole projects at The Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center, in Frederick, Maryland. It will include some “Squaremeals,” some “Amenities,” some amusement parks, and new work called “Galaxies,” such as the image above. When I shoot indoors at night I find that tiny lights, when dramatically blown up, appear very strange due to the diffraction of light as it passes through the pinhole aperture. This was a small bulb on a chandelier in a home in Bethesda, Maryland.
For anyone interested in pinhole and toy cameras, I’ll be teaching a weekend workshop in Williamsport, PA in July. The best part is that the county fair will be in town, and we’ll have a chance to shoot there on Saturday afternoon. I took the shot above on Long Beach Island (NJ) last August - rides are one of my favorite subjects. For more info on the workshop, visit http://bit.ly/YFmLez
