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Check out Strecker’s open studio show of recent works in Center Sandwich, NH, US. 10% of sales will be donated to Doctors Without Borders.

Check out this gallery of photos comparing pinholes to zone plates from pinhole/zone plate camera manufacturer Zero Image.

Make some pinhole photos, pick your best one, and upload it to the WPPD gallery (free)!

Don’t have a pinhole camera? No problem! There are workshops and exhibits of pinhole photography all over the world today where you can build or use one, check the events listings for your area.

If there’s nothing near you, grab the free plans for one of these paper cut-out do-it-yourself 35mm pinhole cameras:

The Dirkon

Nick Dvoracek’s Populist (PDF link).

I’m going to shoot and check out the show [see previous post] at RayKo Photo Center in San Francisco, CA, US.

Happy shooting!

PS Please note that despite what they tell you, WPPD is not presented by the Lomographic Society International!

The goons at the Lomographic Society International—the people who brought the world the $20 Holga for $70 and monopolistic control over the distribution of the Lomo LC-A camera—have now added Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day to the list of products and events they had nothing to do with creating that they’ve claimed as their own. The headline of their latest newsletter proclaims, “THE LOMOGRAPHIC SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL PROUDLY PRESENTS THE WORLD PINHOLE DAY”.

Um, no.

WPPD was started in 2001. As far as I know—and please correct me if I’m wrong—none of the members of that year’s coordinating team were affiliated with LSI. Same with this year’s roster. Or any year in between. So to the best of my knowledge, LSI doesn’t present WPPD, proudly or otherwise, at all.

Granted, they don’t use the exact same name, they call it “World Pinhole Day”, and the actual pinhole day event is called “Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day”, but they look same, and they just happen to fall on the same date.

Why would they do such a thing? Probably because it’s a good way to sell more pinhole cameras. They have a decent selection of horribly overpriced pinholes to choose from. And that’s fine. But is it necessary to claim WPPD as their event, which is clearly a crock of shit, to do so? No. They could have gotten behind the real Pinhole Day and promoted it to their mutual advantage instead of choosing this classically-LSI approach. I urge you to think about the kind of company you’re supporting when you buy from them (to say nothing of the fact that you’re almost certainly over-paying).

Here’s where to get the pinhole cameras LSI sells, or equivalents, for less. Prices are in US dollars.

PinHolga: $60 from LSI, $21.95 from holgamods

35mm PinHolga: I don’t know, but you can convert most $1 plastic 35mm cameras yourself, or you can make or buy a pinhole cap for your 35mm, medium format, or digital SLR.

Bulldog Large Format Camera: $325 from LSI, $302.43 from camerabellows.com (as of today’s exchange rate, and that includes VAT, which shouldn’t apply to US orders). And, you can find used, no-assembly-required 4×5 cameras for less. You can try the Buy/Sell board on the Large Format Photography Forum, the Cameras & Lenses classifieds on APUG, or the auction sites.

Zero Image Zero 2000 ("Zero Pinhole 120"): $165 from LSI, $93 from the manufacturer

Zero Image Zero 135 ("Zero Pinhole 35"): $140 from LSI, $93 from the manufacturer

Zero Image Zero 69 Deluxe w/ spirit level & cable release ("Zero Image Deluxe"): $320 from LSI, $222 from the manufacturer

Noon Large Format Pinhole: $225 from LSI, grab the similar-looking and almost certainly identically-functioning (LSI doesn’t list the focal length of the one they sell) Santa Barbara 4×5 75mm pinhole camera for $63.95 from B&H

Sharan DIY Pinhole: $40 from LSI, free if you download and print the plans for the original Dirkon paper pinhole camera, or you can grab the plans for Nick Dvoracek’s Populist cut-out pinhole camera (PDF link). They’re all paper cameras that you have to put together yourself.

SmileyCam: $25 from LSI, $23 from Justin Quinnell, who makes them. Or just make one yourself, which should be very easy.

And it’s not a pinhole, but you can get a SplitCam $11.95 from the awesome American Science & Surplus instead of paying LSI $25.

Why else don’t I like the Lomographic Society?

Shitty products at high prices: their flagship, the LC-A, is a piece of junk. The lens is unique and awesome, but the camera that surrounds it sucks. They didn’t build them, but they locked down the supply and charge a premium. The first LC-A I ordered from them operated in bulb mode no matter what. The shutter button on the replacement fell off after running less than five rolls through it. I haven’t used an LC-A+ and therefore can’t comment on it.

Their Colorsplash and Fisheye cameras have some of the worst build quality I’ve ever seen. Yes, they work. But for how long? I think my $1.50 Lex 35 crapcams are actually built slightly better.

Their Hipshot was my first camera bag. The seams are unraveling and the Velcro on the camera compartments doesn’t stick—even when I press them together carefully—which leaves anything you put in them likely to fly out and break as you move.

Terrible customer support: When I received the broken LC-A, I sent them several emails over the course of I think three weeks and never got a single response. Finally I called them, sent back the whole package, and got only a replacement camera back. I guess they kept the rest of the kit.

Monopolistic and bullying business practices: they secured world-wide exclusive distribution rights to the LC-A from the factory (can’t charge $200-250 for a $50 camera if there’s any competition!) and then went after anyone else who sold them, regardless of origin.

For example, Lomo Joe is a guy who lived in St. Petersburg, Russia. If you didn’t want to pay the extortionate Lomo Society price for an LC-A, he’d go buy one in a local store and send it to you. Check out the threatening letter LSI president Wolfgang Stranzinger sent him.

Getting people to love getting ripped off: this one’s almost difficult not to find evidence of. People drool all over themselves for anything “Lomo” (including things whose only connection to Lomo is that they’re sold by LSI, like Holgas and Horizons) and just can’t wait to be taken advantage of by paying hugely inflated prices and having their work published in books that LSI profits from without offering the photographers any compensation. I guess getting screwed by a marketing company is its own reward.

Francesco Capponi made this pinhole camera out of a pine nut! It shoots 18×7mm frames. Check out the rather awesome portraits he made with it here.

Thanks to Decepticrat for the heads-up; via MAKE Blog

Check out this two-part video tutorial by Michael C. Pastur on converting a Polaroid Super Shooter camera (tied with the SLR680 as my new favorites) into a pinhole camera. Thanks to Captoe for the heads-up!

Part 1

Part 2

Two shows of pinhole/camera obscura photographer Abelardo Morell’s work are wrapping up in the next week. One at the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College in Amherst, MA, US, closes this Sunday, 20 January, 2008 (details here).

The other, at the University of New England Art Gallery at Westbrook College Campus in Portland, ME, US, closed the following one, on Sunday, 27 January, 2008. (See the gallery site for more info.)

He’ll also be in San Francisco, CA, US on Friday, 25 January, 2008, giving a talk at the San Francisco Art Institute Lecture Hall at 800 Chestnut Street at 7:30pm. $10 general admission.

Shikihan made this insane 6×17 "Limousine" pinhole camera out of a Holga! You can see two test shots made with it in Tokyo here and here on Flickr.

She’s made a bunch of other cool pinhole cameras (and makes great photos with them), check them out!

Chris Keeney talks to pinhole/Holga/Polaroid experimental photographer Therese Brown as part of his excellent ongoing series of interviews with fine art photographers.

You can see Brown’s work at her Web site, ThisIsWhatISee.com as well as on Flickr.

This one’s a must-read, so do it at ChrisKeeney.com.

Marie-Noëlle Leroy says:

The Andre Malraux Cultural Center of Le Bourget (France) organizes his second International lensless Photographic Exhibition ! Uniquely pinhole, zone-plate, sieve…

The topic of the exhibition is: Urban Nature
Urban nature! From the flowers on the balcony to the dogged bit of grass growing between the paving stones of the streets, from the arranged parks to the falow lands, from the free flying pigeons to the bears in a cage at the zoo… The pinhole photography must give your answer to the question: which place does still occupy the nature in our large cities?

Each photographer will have a surface of 1 m2 that he will fill with its own way with the number of images which he wants! 1 image of 100 X 100 cm, 4 images of 50 × 50 cm or 100 images of 10 × 10 cm… which they are presented in square, rectangle, L or… it doesn’t matters the number of pictures and the arrangement, the surface must be 1 m square!

The exhibition will take place from 2008 March 4th to April 27th,
at the Andre Malraux Cultural Center of Le Bourget (France)

To take part, send before 2007, December 31th, by Internet only a file including the following parts:

• Reproductions of images such as they will appear in the Exhibition - Each reproductions must be numbered. Each reproduction will measure 15 cm (5.9 in) in its greatest dimension in 300 dpi, then to have passed into jpeg format, maximum quality. Each one must be cleaned up, in RGB format for colours, in gray levels for Black and White.
• A sketch presenting the arrangement with the number of each picture. You aren’t obliged to use frames, your pictures can be simply pasted on a rigid support or presented in the form of a roller…
• a note (format RTF or PDF) presenting (in French, English or Spanish) :
  • Your Name, First name, Address,Country , and e-mail address.
  • A short biography (5 lines)
• Characteristics of the pinhole-camera(s) used to create these photography (focal length, diaphragm, …)
  • A short text (in French, English or Spanish) presenting your work on this subject (5 lines).
  • A photography of each pinhole-cameras used, numbered in correspondence with the reproductions. This (these) image(s) will measure 7 cm (2.75 in) in its greatest dimension in 300 dpi, passed into JPEG maximum quality.

    The files not corresponding to this request will be systematically rejected.

  The selected authors will be informed by e-mail only during the last two weeks of January 2008. The selected authors will have to send in January (dead line for reception: February 10th) by the post office their photographies ready to be hung on the walls.

  Authors have to take all the customary precautions for a safe travel of their works so that they won’t be damaged.

  During the exhibition, the authors will receive by e-mail pictures showing the opening and the exhibition. At the end of the exhibition, the pictures will be returned to their authors at the Town hall of Le Bourget expense.

  Memorandum

  2007, December 31th: Deadline to send the files to centre.culturel@ville-le-bourget.fr

  2008, January 15 – 20: The selected authors are informed by e-mail.

  2008, January 15 – February 10th : Reception of the works ready to be hung.

  2008, March 4th – April 27th: Exhibition.

  2008, May: The works come back to their authors.

Note that there is no entry fee! It’s submission season, but this is the only one I’ve found that I’ve been able to post so far, because all the rest have entry fees. Which is BULLSHIT. Way to go on not trying to screw artists, Andre Malraux Cultural Center of Le Bourget!