StoryCube Cameras

Without seeing my post on Thomas Hudson Reeve and his paper cameras, Niharika suggested we try to turn StoryCubes into pinhole cameras. When we mentioned this to Giles we discovered that a project he had commissioned by Tina Keane for Coil Journal of the Moving Image had involved pinhole cameras and there were still a few unused ones around. So we began…

We improvised with the bathroom at Proboscis as a darkroom and a packet of sun-print paper from the Tate Gallery Shop standing in for proper photographic paper. This paper seems to be intended to be used for photograms but we thought we’d see how it worked in the pinhole camera.

Setting up the first experiment

For our first experiment we aimed the cube camera at the Clerkenwell skyline. We opened the lens, waited for five minutes then went inside to develop our picture. We were rewarded with a beautiful piece of blue paper.. NOTHING had made it onto the paper!

The second experiment and a photogram of scissors

While we tried pinhole experiment 2 turning our camera on an apple (hey, if it’s good enough for Isaac Newton..!) we also set up a photogram trial with a scrap of paper to give us an idea of exposure times. The photogram turned out pretty well, we left the camera for another 5 minutes after developing the photogram and got.. another piece of blue paper.

Our output: some keys, half a spoon, a pair of scissors and two squares of blue paper..