Shooting pinhole and my process

Since I’ve participated in a number of portfolio reviews lately, I’ve gotten used to answering a lot of similar questions. One that I really enjoy answering is about my process to make the images in my Grounded series, which are large format pinhole images that I print with platinum/palladium. While I think describing the process is important to some and not others (what really matters is the final images themselves, right?), I do like answering the question to those who are interested enough to ask. So for anyone curious about the logistical aspects of this part of my work, here it is.

I shoot with a wide-angle 4×5 pinhole camera, which is basically a wooden box that takes both Polaroid backs and film holders. I actually have a few of these cameras now, because I’m impatient and sometimes like to set up my next shot while the first one is being exposed over a long period of time. I chose to work with pinhole first out of curiosity, and stuck with it after time because I love the simplicity of it. In the beginning, infinite depth of field was a challenge, and later I started making images that needed it. I also enjoy spending a lot of time with my images, and shooting pinhole even in the brightest light, definitely slows one down. It forces my typically impatient self to think and plan and compose carefully. In a way it works well for my personality, because it gives me the structure I can’t always give myself.

I generally use Polaroids to compose the images, since I can’t see through the camera. After working this way for a while, I’ve begun to understand and expect what the camera will do if placed at a certain angle and distance from the subject, so I don’t always use them (to cut costs), but they do play a big role in the process. I use a light meter and some math to figure out exposures, because my light meter doesn’t read for f/500. Thankfully my cameras are heavy enough that I can just place them on the ground for a while, and still get sharp images. Sometimes I dig a little hole or prop them up with sticks or rocks. I’ve found that for the work I’m doing now, I just can’t get low enough with a tripod.

I know that a lot of folks enjoy pinhole cameras for the surprises, blurriness or imperfections they can create. I think pinhole is assumed by many to always do this, and in a way not often taken seriously by a lot of professional photographers. I believe in pinhole cameras as tools just as any other cameras are, and we each choose our tools and how we work with them based on the images we want to make, our own style, and of course personality. When I shoot pinhole I know exactly what I’m going to get from it, because I want to control every aspect of it. Not everyone uses it in the same way.

The result of this is the series I call Grounded, in which placing the wide-angle camera on the ground provides a view of the world that I couldn’t possibly see without photographing it in this way. I like to think of the images as what a bug might see, by creating intimidating and often distorted landscapes that force the viewer to see from the immediate ground up, instead of our typical (human) angle of view.

Photos © Steph Plourde-Simard

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