2024 REVIEW
of pinhole cameras and cyanotypes
2024 has been a remarkable year, it's the worst year for photos in decades. Pinhole cameras require strong light to obtain photos but 2024 was the darkest year of this century and perhaps the previous one. These are the official figures from Météo France which say it:
To summarize 2024: Rain and coolness, not at all a year conducive to pinhole cameras.
Since it is the official government site it states that this year has obviously been the hottest ever observed. Not in the north of France where we had, in Thiérache, at most 3 or 4 days this summer at over 30°. In the north of France the claim that 2024 was the hottest year ever observed is official fake news, nothing more, nothing less. We must maintain the propaganda for anthropogenic global warming, whether it is true or not.
But:
Capricious weather does not prevent from acting and thinking.
Actions:
- Construction of boxes for more compact formats, in particular to directly produce A5 and especially A6 postcards.
- Purchase of a UV lamp (Everbeam 365 nm 100w) to compensate for the inconsistency of natural lighting. A simple packaging box lined with aluminum foil forms an insolation chamber. I can now produce cyanotypes at will, day or night, and control the duration of exposure. In the humid outdoor atmosphere and rarely sufficiently exposed I noticed that the use of a photo frame for the cyanopes posed a problem. Humidity distorts the support and ends up producing blurry cyanopes. The solution? 2 photo frames. I now use one of the glass surfaces as a background and the other as a support for the negative and the cyanope. A sheet of black drawing paper prevents light from passing under the sandwich and ensures perfect flatness of the whole. The glass is not likely to warp with humidity unlike ordinary particleboard.
So what to do with these chipboard boards that have become useless? Pinhole cameras of course!
This chipboard is only 2 mm thick, so it cannot be used for large formats, it is too deformable. So I tried a mini pinhole camera.
100% recycled, the pinhole itself is pierced in the aluminum sealing lid of an instant coffee can and everything is only held together thanks to the gaffer and elastics. No glue, just scrap recycling. Also collect photo paper, the Liliput format is 6x9 cm. If I want to test the square format, 18x18 cm seems a good compromise. Using a standard 18x24 sheet leaves a 6x18 strip of photo paper. Cut in two I have a standard format of 6x9, also used in film support, the 120 format used for 6x6, 6x9 and 6x17. Is Liliput lightproof? Is it usable?
Result?
My first self portrait, 30 seconds of freehand exposure. The device was simply placed on a tablet, I was half standing.
Yes, I'm one eyed and I wear a pirate headband ;-) No, it's not a handicap, just an annoyance. End of parenthesis.
One of the fastest photos I was able to take thanks precisely to the small format used. Liliput will never give postcards or posters but I can take it in a pocket and put it anywhere. When the sun returns it will never leave me. This is the last photo of the year 2024, taken during a short quarter of an hour of winter sunshine. Sign of a year 2025 favorable to pinhole cameras? Let's accept the omen...
- Writing a program for producing my pinhole cameras from A to Z:
My pinhole cameras are boxes that fit into each other, simplicity above all. With each new format I had to use the ruler, the drawing paper and the calculator to trace the pieces that make up the boxes. I had to resort to the drPinhole page to note the photographic characteristics. What if I had a program that directly offers the photographic characteristics and rated data of the boxes from the format of the paper I want to print?
It was done, I present to you Stenomaker, my Christmas present ;-)
Characteristics, instructions for use, download on cette page:
Thoughts:
2024 is a record year for business bankruptcies:
I had left for a company manufacturing pinhole boxes but between a continuous deterioration in the standard of living of Europeans and the crazy costs of postal services I turned to the production of cyanotype postcards from negatives taken with a pinhole camera. Sending a 30x40 cm box to the United States costs at least 89 euros! The box being bulky and having to bear the risks of transport not necessarily carried out gently, the packaging will have to be reinforced which will further increase the costs and easily rise to more than 100 euros. For a box that would be sold for around 120. Who would pay that much to receive an empty box? The Chinese have ridiculous shipping costs but the French have to bleed themselves to send even the smallest package. So put an end to the idea of sending ready-made and tested boxes. There remains the possibility of self-assembly kits. If a buyer wants a box or a kit I am of course at their disposal.
Since today many French people prefer to eat their fill and keep warm (for those who can still) than play with pinhole cameras, postcards offer a more affordable solution. On the one hand the box, the photo paper, the chemistry, the travel to take the photos, the safe lighting, all of this has a cost. On the other, a postcard, an easy gift to yourself or to make, 3 euros without any additional costs. Ease of sending even in large quantities, even abroad and yet a manufactured and unique, artistic production. With custom photography this option remains viable. Many stores offer postcards, cyanotypes allow cyanopes but also drawn creations, in addition to broadening the domain of possible images the cyanotype also broadens the possible clientele.
What's new for 2025?
-Postcards by cyanotype, cyanopes and various cyanotype drawings.
The more sunshine there is, the more cyanopes there will be, a series on the fortified churches of Thiérache is still in the works, the sun will eventually return.
- Pinhole cameras in square format. It's a format that I've never used and yet it's the one that was most used at the height of press photography. We all remember the 6x6 twin lenses 6x6 type Mamiya 330 or Rolleiflex which were the heyday of journalists in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Most historical photos of this era were in square format. Many photographic artists still use this format for their works. So I have to also test, in addition to traditional and panoramic formats. Each format must be mastered for the composition of the image and the choice of subject. Next box: an 18x18 cm.
- Opening my company Antiquevisions to distribute my work.
These are the projects for the year that has just started, wait and see as Donald would say ;-)