arming kids with cameras is not a new concept….it was a "new idea" 30 yrs. ago when jim hubbard created "shooting back" in washington d.c. as a creative response to a creaky art program in the school system of our nations capital…everyone loves children’s drawings , and everyone seems to love youngster’s photographs as well…so raw, so fresh, …
eniac martinez (see previous post) gave me a little book when we met in mexico…"Un Pueblo Toba" is a smallish handy softback book of photographs taken in the little village of Toba in Argentina….the "new" catch to this book is that the photographs were all taken with self-made pinhole cameras….so this is really down to basics….this unselfconscious work with the pinhole may be as close to authentic documentary as you can get…
I must say i am moved by the photographs you have uploaded with this post.. quite a basic photography, but full of art …I think it is always the eye of the photographer who creates the photograph and the mind and soul of him which creates the art out of it … both the photographs are excellent in terms of art and documentation…it has got a very classic feel as well… timeless …
Regards, Sandip
pinhole photography with self-made cameras is really fantastic. every semester i begin my introductory photography course (i teach photography at a high school) with “the pin-hole camera project”. every student makes a camera and then we go out to take photos. and every semester we keep up the average – few cameras that do not work, few indecipherable (sp?) images and then few gems.
more important, students really like it, enjoy it and are so puzzled by the process and the realization that you can make a camera out of a shoe box or tin container and actually take pictures with it, without the fancy new cameras and expensive lenses.
from my experience it is really a great way to start a photo class with a group of non experienced teenagers.
My first major experience with photography, post highschool yearbook, was shooting self-made pinhole at the College of Santa Fe with David Scheinbaum… changed my life… made photography a real experience, far surpassing what it had been for me. I’d bet many of us started that way…
pinhole rocks..
this is camera obscura though.. magnifying glass and a coke can apeture.. curved ‘film plan’ of two 10 by 8 sheets printing paper..
the intention was to go for sharpness & quality.
f162 with focus from 2 inch to infinity..
5 min exposure..
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3094/2882207022_de17356173_b.jpg