WHERE AND WHEN

The Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day (WPPD) celebrates its twelfth edition. This international event that promotes the fantasy, art, fun and experience of lens-less photography is always held the last Sunday of April each year. This year Pinhole Day will occur on April 29, 2012 and expects to break last year's record that saw the participation of over 3300 photographers from all over the world.

HOW

Everyone in the world is invited to take a picture with a pinhole camera on April 29th and upload it to http://www.pinholeday.org. One photo by each artist will become part of the internet's premier pinhole photography gallery.

WHAT IT IS

Pinhole photos are taken without a lens but simply through a small hole, about the size of the period at the end of a sentence. Photos can be made using regular cameras, including digital, fitted with a pinhole aperture. Refined results can be obtained using pinhole cameras purposely made for the lens-less photography. It is creative, funny and educational to use a self-made camera from ordinary items such as shoe boxes, peeled tomato cans or tea boxes. Any container that can be made light-tight can become a pinhole camera.

An increasing number of people are showing interest in the exciting practice of pinhole photography. In 2001, 291 pinhole photographers from 24 countries took part in the web exhibition. Last year they were 3387 from 67 countries.

IN THE WORLD

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day will see many pinhole photography events organized in every corner of the earth, from workshops to groups of friends making photos and from elegant exhibitions to elementary school classroom participation. Special attention is devoted to young folks and schools.

WHO WE ARE

WPPD stems from the enthusiastic work by dozens of volunteers scattered worldwide. Their efforts are directed by the international coordinating team: Tom Miller - USA (Team Leader), Gregg Kemp -USA (Team Leader and Webmaster), Paolo Aldi - Italy (Publicity), Nick Dvoracek - USA (Support), Wolfgang Thoma - Belgium (Translations), Chuck Flagg - USA (Education), Marie-Noëlle Leroy - France (Events)

More information and the full program (constantly updated) can be found at http://www.pinholeday.org.

WHY

Why 'Slow Photography' with pinhole? Because this photography is about:

Release

The feeling to be the masters of the images we produce instead of a kind of servo-system of the camera.

Magic

Whatever the 'camera obscura' on hand, whatever the level of our technical ability, the result is magical.

World

The world seen through a little hole is a timeless world, silent, enchanted.

Time

The suspended and rarefied atmosphere that reigns on the lens-less images is the result of a very special relation with time. Forget the snapshot: it may take seconds or minutes before the image is fully exposed. Pinhole is the photography of patience, of meditation. With traditional photography, and mainly with digital photography, one snaps and runs, so we see the places only afterwards, at home. The pinhole photographer carefully chooses his subjects; he cannot snap nonstop.

Ecology of the mind

Pinhole photographers wait for the little box to do its job and in the meantime they look around, they think.

No more anguish for a 'badly turned out' photo; an unexpected light intrusion, a diffraction, a blur are accidents that pinhole photographers consider, they accept them, more, they appreciate them as the chance contribution to the artistic creation. Praise to the controlled inaccuracy, philosophy of the respect for the world order! It is ecology of the image that becomes ecology of the mind.

For further information contact Tom Miller (tom@pinholeday.org), Gregg Kemp (gregg@pinholeday.org) or publicity@pinholeday.org