The Pinhole Project

I started Pinhole Travels in the mid-1990s because I wanted a new way of making travel photos. The pinhole camera is a camera without a lens. A tiny pinhole gathers light in a long exposure, flooding the film with a softly-focused image. I used a 4x5 camera with Polaroid Type 55 film, which is no longer made. I traveled to various places around the world including France, Japan, China and Mexico with a heavy pack, tripod, bottles of water and baggies because the film needed to be processed and inspected on site. I loved the slow exposures—minutes rather than fractions of seconds. It allowed me time to stand still, absorb the surroundings, listen to the wind or conversations in other languages. And I love the soft images that are, because of the very long exposures, devoid of people, giving a sense of utter tranquility.