The Artistic Beauty of Pinhole Photography by Sheila Bocchine
Pinhole photography has been around for a long time. In the most simplest terms, pinhole photography is lensless photography. A very small hole replaces the camera lens. As light passes through the tiny hole, an image is formed inside the camera.
Pinhole cameras come in sizes both small or large, and are designed with great care. Cameras have been made of a wide variety of things, including sea shells, oatmeal boxes, coke cans or cookie containers. People have even used station wagons as a pinhole camera, as well as rooms in large buildings.
Simply stated, a pinhole camera is a box, with a tiny hole at one end and film or photographic paper at the other.
The pinhole camera is a type of Camera Obscura, the first camera invented in the 1850’s. Before it was used as a camera with film, it was a tool to help artists learn to paint and draw with more detail, a tool devised to help tell time and a tool used by scientists for observing a solar eclipse.
Sheila Bocchine is an international pinhole portrait photographer. She has traveled the world doing pinhole portraits and weddings. Sheila’s style of portraiture is a unique luxury, is the only photographer doing it commercially.
What makes Sheila Bocchine’s photos so special is the unique process she uses. Her pinhole camera is lensless, uses medium format (120) film, is made from teak wood and produces square images. The exposures are longer to compensate for the pinhole, which is why you will see subtle blur and motion in all of her images.
Since the world rarely stands still, my pinhole camera captures all the beautiful motion and energy onto the negative, thus resulting with dreamscape-like qualities. Sheila Bocchine feels like each pinhole photograph is a marvelous dream… a surreal and whimsical moment in time that has swirled around her daydreams before coming out as the perfect pinhole photograph.
Sheila’s pinhole portraits are romantic, surreal, whimsical, beautiful, and unique. Pinhole photography is a photographic experience, a fanciful interpretation of life. The energy of your soul dances onto film through sunbursts, subtle motion and interesting angles.
To see more pinhole portraits, as well as learn more about Sheila Bocchine and her amazing pinhole photography, please view her website at: www.sheilabocchine.com