Photos: Denver celebrates Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day

By Kelsey Whipple Thu., May 3 2012 at 1:00 PM

Categories: Art, Photography, Photos

Mark Sink

If you noticed that Sunday's weather was particularly welcoming, you were not alone. But you probably didn't appreciate it quite as much as the fifty people wandering around the grounds of the Zang Mansion. For the first time, the sun smiled on Denver's celebration of Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. Although the film-friendly event extends back more than ten years, the Denver version, hosted by the Colorado Photographic Arts Center, had been blighted by clouds and cursed with long exposures for all four years of its history.

Until now.

Each of the photos below was taken using a pinhole camera -- basically the most primitive form of photography readily available. Devotees crafted their own cameras with the help of CPAC, creating the simple devices with only one aperture and no lens, filling them with photos snapped around the Zang Mansion and then developing the images themselves in a black room. Although pinhole cameras can be created from almost any container -- even soup cans -- the most common kind is typically a light-resistant cardboard box with a hole cut in the side. And from that came these experimental images.

"I think it's about discovery and the real magic of photography," CPAC executive director Rupert Jenkins says. "It's really hands-on, making your camera capture an image and then seeing that image come out of nothing. It's kind of a science project, photography and art combined -- but it's mostly discovery."

For complete coverage of the annual event, visit the official gallery, which includes almost 1,500 photos from 63 countries. But first, Denver's own: