Events at Washington School of Photography are becoming bigger and better in our new space. We’ve always had gallery openings, and open houses, but we’re entering a new realm of events with guest speakers, auctions, and more artist opportunities than ever before.
Something I’m very happy to announce is a FREE workshop, open to the public, coming this May.
WSP will be hosting world-famous Justin Quinnell, expert on pinhole photography. Not only is Justin a pro on the art of pinhole photography, but he knows the ins and outs of constructing your very own pinhole camera. He can construct a pinhole lens from almost anything – an old film canister, a beer can, anything! In his workshop at WSP Justin will be giving his “Aristotle’s Hole” Lecture talking a little bit about the history of pinhole photography, but also the art itself, and a brief demo on construction of the device.
Justin himself is hilarious. A wonderfully-chatty Brit, who wants nothing but to share his love of pinhole with the world. He called me up one day – after swapping a few emails – and after working out the event details, ended up telling me about his great two kids who will be visiting the US with him this summer. They seem like adorable miniatures of their father – of course he sent me a photo of them to “follow up on our discussion earlier”.
His love of the history of pinhole is also wonderful. When I mentioned a potential blog post, he responded with a long list of history facts. A couple of my favorites include…
“The earliest recorded reference [of pinhole photography] was in 470 BC when the Chinese philosopher Mo ti compared light forming an image through a small hole acting as an arrow being fired.”
“In the 19th century the invention of photography along with developments in lens design, gave an eager public the ability for self portraits without the need for being clamped still for hours! Pinhole photographers consisted of a few brave exponents holding out against the roller coaster progress of lens based photography and the accompanying desire to look cool with a camera!”
Justin’s images have appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, Dentistry Today and NASA.gov. He was pinhole photography consultant for the Rachel Weisz – Mark Ruffalo movie ‘The Brothers Bloom’. He has made broadcast appearances on The One show, Jonathan Ross show, Blue Peter and Radio 4 ‘Today’. Justin’s published credits include ‘Mouthpiece’ and ‘Make your own paper camera’. A third publication, ‘Make your Own Pinhole Camera’, will be published in June.
We are really looking forward to Justin’s lecture, to take place on May 25th, 2pm-4pm. It promises to be an educational event, filled with plenty of entertaining stories and words of wisdom to the pinhole public.
To register for the workshop – free of charge – visit our website.
If you’d like to learn more about Justin, or see some of his pinhole photography, please visit his site at http://www.pinholephotography.org/
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