- #HTE Site-Specific Pinhole Cameras Constructed...

#HTE

Site-Specific Pinhole Cameras Constructed From Nature Capture the Pacific Northwest

Site-specific pinhole image of Pescadero Creek, image via David Janesko

In a meta, Mother Nature-inspired project, artists David Janesko and Adam Donnelly use objects from the earth to photograph the environment from which they are found, often utilizing leaves, logs, dirt, and scattered wood to produce hazy images of the world around them. To date, the pair has made approximately 28 cameras, each with a preexisting lens. Janesko and Donnelly do not create an aperture for the natural cameras by hand, but rather use ones already available in the form of a chewed hole in a leaf or a piece of bark that already has a crack.

The body of the camera is much larger, and like the lens, is only constructed from the material around them, much like a small fort. One of the two will stand outside the camera as a shutter, while the other remains inside with the photographic paper, sometimes for as long as 45 minutes. “We build and photograph with the camera in a single day, we leave the camera as we made it, to fall apart and disappear back into the environment,” Janesko told The Creators Project.

Janesko and Donnelly attempt to capture the physical experience of their cameras in each photograph—producing a muffled and patient image of the lands which they enter. Previously the two had documented the San Francisco Bay Area, but are now heading to the Rio Grande River where their new land cameras will be recorded for an upcoming documentary. You can learn more about the film on their IndieGoGo. (via The Creators Project)