Pinholed: Turning wheelie bins into art

Pinholed: Turning wheelie bins into art GREEN, bulky and often fairly smelly, wheelie bins were never the most welcome addition to the Edinburgh streetscape. "What many pinhole photographers like is that aspect of surprise," says Kenny, 47, a professional creative photographer who has wheeled his modified bin to spots around Edinburgh, using it to capture a large variety of intriguing images. "You can't be too sure of precisely what picture you'll end up with. The festival runs until March 17 and includes a chance to see photographs captured using pinhole cameras, workshops and tips on how to make your own pinhole cameras. "The wheelie bin is tricky, it takes 20 minutes to take a photo," adds Kenny. 'So there's this lack of creative control, everything is done for you, all automatic. You have to work at it to get an image and that makes it more satisfying whenever you do get a good picture. ". The question then, is with digital photography these days offering us all of the chance to take perfect pictures and computer technology at our fingertips to tweak and twist it how we want, why bother? "I think this is a kickback against digital photography in a way," says Kenny, 47, who also uses a sewage pipe – a new one, he quickly adds – to capture striking images which look like they could have been taken on the most expensive of equipment. "A lot of people find digital photography quite unsatisfactory. You have a screen that shows you what picture you're taking and every picture works, more or less. With no lenses to fiddle with and an aspect of guesswork involved when it comes to framing each shot, along with a giant dollop of patience – exposure time can range from minutes to several hours – the results, agrees Kenny, can be a more hit or miss affair than simply pushing the button on even the simplest smartphone camera. Each striking image on show, some in dazzling colour, some quirky – such as a snap taken from inside one photographer's mouth – and some blurred ghostly portraits, has been captured using the simplest of cameras possible: just a sealed box, a pinhole to allow in a shaft of light and either some photographic paper or film. The results of his work, along with other fascinating images from fellow pinhole photographers, can be seen at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in the city's first Pinhole Photography Festival, which also supplies a chance for a new breed of would-be pinhole photographers to discover how to make their own basic cameras. There's not much involved in taking it either. "Seal the box up then expose the photo paper for seconds, minutes, sometimes hours and then develop it in a dark room. "You basically just require a sealed box," he explains. According to Kenny, the process involved is so simple that parties of primary school children who attended the festival workshops earlier this week mastered the art within minutes. A spell in a dark room and some chemicals later, and the results are sometimes striking and often provocative images, photographs captured without camera or lens, using just light and paper. Pinholed: Turning wheelie bins into art Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 11/03/2012