Please see the first blog entry below for a discussion of the process of making a pinhole photo.  I got one of the photos blown up into a 2 1/2 foot by 4 foot image yesterday and it looks great!  I am very enthusiastic about these images, they just seem to have the feel of the Smokies and the secret creeks and water here like no other medium I have explored to date.

Please post any comments.

Calling Card: The calling card in the Books collection was really fun to figure out. 

The outside is a monoprint on a nice rag paper. It is lined with tracing paper that has been monoprinted by spreading India type ink mixed with some water and blotting it. It makes the most beautiful organic designs on the translucent paper. I included an envelope on the inside – made after multiple prototypes – that is cut and folded from a single piece of tracing paper. The envelope holds the ‘calling card’ which is a thick rag vellum card printed on a Vandercook letterpress with my name and website address. The press leaves an imprint in ink as well as a slight embossing. It is fastened with black waxed linen thread that winds around the card finishing with a twist around a slate gray river pebble on the flap. 

The blacks and grays made from the beautiful etching inks and India Ink make an incredible variety of colors and shapes against the white of the paper. The design is organic down to the slight curves of the card caused by the paper’s reaction to being glued and printed. 

A simple piece. But simple is not necessarily easy. 

Some notes about process: I have been taking pinhole camera photos. For some reason these images are compelling to me – they evoke more about place than painting, drawing, or my digital photos. I love their raw, unfinished quality. 

The cameras are made of coffee cans, paint, tape, and soda cans with a nut glued to the bottom so I can attach the can to my tripod. One camera takes one shot. It takes all morning to load the cameras, drive to the site, return to the darkroom at WCU, and develop the photos.  I later scan the photos and invert so I can see what the photo actually looks like. I love the surprise!  Then from the scan I can print a negative transparency to use for a cyanotype or a positive for a digital print or a transparency to expose a solar plate for an etching (a newer plate technology for an old print making process). 

I have done about 80 images with the pinhole cameras (I made 12 cameras). There is no lens, it is totally ‘point and shoot’, and every step of the process is an adventure, not the least of which is the site visit. The long exposure times – between 45 seconds and 2 minutes means I have to pay attention. The limited number of shots means I look really hard at the site. I never really know what I have until the moment when it ‘inverts’ on the computer. 

I have done several images as cyanotypes which are posted on the website.  I love the color and the painted quality of the edges.

You might ask why go to all this trouble? I have no idea but it seems like the right thing to do.