Delio Ansovini
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Web Site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11058938@N06/

It was only recently that I decided it was time for me to take up pin-holing. After thirty years amusing myself with lens photography while working and travelling in my day job as a professional engineer, I viewed photography as a pastime in my retirement with somewhat limited enthusiasm.

Although I was familiar with the theory of pinhole photography, it was my daughter who provided the impetus to start some practical experimentation. Three years ago she presented me with a birthday gift of a 1950s hardcover volume of Prose and Poetry for Appreciation (15x22x3.5 cm. thick) with all pages glued together and carved out to form a virtual "camera obscura" cavity.

The inside of this cavity was painted black, the front cover had a 15mm hole and the back cover a film holder on the inside face, while two elastics held the assembly closed. The camera was not quite light-tight and in urgent need of a real pinhole, but it was all I needed to get started. I joined the online community f295, was immediately hooked and have loved every minute of learning new techniques and sharing experiences. Now my daughter has all the glass with the cameras; I have all the pinholes - I consider that a fair exchange!

I design and make my own pinhole cameras, or modify vintage folders. This satisfies the engineering left in me and offers some certainty that the tools will work before I commit to the creative part of the process. I mostly use a variable focal length 4x5, with three chambers with options of three different pinholes of f151, f250 and f313. I have others, but to spare myself embarrassment I shall not elaborate further. I do develop all my black and white negatives with various developers and processes; large prints and colour films are all done by the local laboratories in the city.

The proverbial question; why do I use pinhole cameras as the photography medium? Because the challenge is excitement - to me it offers the freedom to do what I like best in trying to show what I see. And, if I can engage the attention of a viewer with a pinhole photograph, I think we both gain in knowing that it can be done with the help of a little hole in a black box.

by Delio Ansovini