Pinhole Photography Artist Statement
My pinhole photography is created with a camera that is nothing more than a light-tight box with a tiny hole that projects an image on film. There is no lens and no viewfinder. A pinhole camera boils photography down to its simplest components: light and composition, a huge contrast to today’s digital photography. As a former photojournalist, I worked with digital photography since its very beginning. In contrast, my pinhole photography is the oldest form of photography.
The limitations and simplicity of the pinhole makes photography new again for me. This simplicity continues to teach me invaluable lessons about photography and the way I see the world.
Cameron has been honored with numerous awards for his pinhole photography at art fairs. He has participated in some of the top art fairs in the country with this unique approach to photography.
Starting out in Pinhole Photography
Early on I realized there were a lot of nature photographers in the art world. I decided to push myself to try something new few others were doing. I had been batting around the pinhole photography idea in my head for a couple years. I knew I could take photos with a pinhole camera, but wasn’t sure if it was even possible to take good enough photos to get into good juried art fairs. In school at the Art Institute of Colorado I had done one pinhole photo for a class assignment, but hadn’t since.
I ordered 4×5 film and chemistry online and the day it arrived started looking around my office for something to make into a pinhole camera. I found a cigar box in my closet, made it into a pinhole camera and after a few tests in the backyard to figure out the exposure, was ready to take a photo. I remembered there was a nice bench in a park nearby our house. I walked up to Owen Conservation park with my cigar box and made a 3-minute exposure. Seeing the first results of my pinhole experiment, I was immediately hooked!
Pinhole Photography Gallery
