"Although I had experimented with pinhole cameras in high school and in an alternative process class I took in college, my love for pinholes didn’t begin until last summer. I was working at an art center (Nantucket Island School of Design and the Arts) on the small island of Nantucket, Massachusetts. The school was on a converted dairy farm in a truly magical part of the island, known as Polpis. I was teaching a youth photography class and decided it would be fun to teach pinhole photography. I made a pinhole for demonstration and began playing around with paper negatives on the farm.  Before I knew it, I had abandoned my view camera for a coffee can. I was living at the school, so I had 24-hour access to the darkroom, which I managed. I began taking my coffee can with me everywhere, trying to get at least one successful image a day. I was determined to capture every aspect of the island that I loved through my pinhole. By the end of the summer, I had taken nearly 60. I was in love.  I am drawn to the simplicity of a pinhole, although it is technical in some ways, it allows me to focus more on the feeling of a moment and a place. It became a meditative experience for me. Seeing the shock and awe of my young students as they saw the images they made from a camera they constructed was a great feeling.

 

In the fall I started my senior year at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. Pinholes still on my mind, I was introduced to the mysterious process of mordançage. I was taking a class with Craig Stevens, who happens to be a master of the rare process and he helped me along the way. I decided to combine the two, which perfectly supported my concept for a new body of work titled, “Thin Veils”.  For this body of work, I used (mostly) Leonardo cameras, which I was able to check out from my school in both 4x5 and 8x10 sizes. I chose these cameras so I could travel and take many images, instead of just one. I used a combination of film, paper negatives and direct positive paper.  I drew inspiration from the history of Savannah, Georgia and the coastal south. Intrigued by ideas of spirits and hauntings, I began taking self-portraits in places of both known and unknown significance.  The pinhole camera allowed me to capture the spirit of a place as well as a passage of time. The post process of mordançage allowed me to manipulate my prints in mysterious and enchanting ways, separating them from reality. This series evolved into my thesis, I made Volume II in my last quarter of school. I did take a hiatus from the project in the winter, when I started working with 4x5 color film, creating a series branching off of the ideas in “Thin Veils”, titled “Remnants”.  I am constantly amazed and inspired by all the possibilities of pinhole cameras. I don’t expect to ever stop using pinholes in my artwork."

CK - I'm a bit sentimental about August being my birthday month, so I wanted to feature someone who's art and interest in pinhole photography is similar to mine. So when I discovered Catie's photos, I knew she was the perfect person for the August feature. I like how she's creatively used the mordançage process to create some interesting and unique images. It is artists like Catie that inspire me to try new photographic processes and explore what types of effects they have on the final image. There is something exciting about seeing an image evolve like that... never really knowing how the photo will look like until it's been final processed and developed. Maybe it's the romantic notion of not completely knowing how something will turn out to be, but instead imagining and dreaming what it will look like or be like when it actually appears before our eyes. This is what Catie's photos say to me. That life is a mystery, a dream and it's up to us to go out there and find the beauty in it. Thanks Catie for sharing your words and images and making this month's feature so great! -Chris

Thin Veils Volume II - 04 // Mordançage pinhole photo gelatin silver print - size 8x10 photograph
Thin Veils Volume II - 03 // Mordançage pinhole photo gelatin silver print - size 8x10 photograph

Thin Veils Volume II - 02 // Mordançage pinhole photo gelatin silver print - size 8x10 photograph
Thin Veils Volume I No.13 // Mordançage pinhole photo gelatin silver print - size 8x10 photograph
Thin Veils Volume I No.05 // Mordançage pinhole photo gelatin silver print - size 8x10 photograph
Thin Veils Volume I No.04 // Mordançage pinhole photo gelatin silver print - size 8x10 photograph
Thin Veils Volume I - No.01 // Mordançage pinhole photo gelatin silver print - size 8x10 photograph
Thin Veils Volume I - No.02 // Mordançage pinhole photo gelatin silver print - size 8x10 photograph
Calm Before The Storm // Black and white photographic paper negative pinhole photograph
Seaview Farm // Black and white photographic paper negative pinhole photograph
Remnants Series No.03 // Color pinhole (lensless) photograph of a woman standing near a white fence
Remnants Series - No.04 // Color pinhole (lensless) photograph of a ghosted woman standing near a tree

Remnants Series - No.05 // Color pinhole (lensless) photograph

Carnival // Black and white photographic paper negative pinhole photograph of a carnival ride

Easy Street - No.02 // Black and white photographic paper negative pinhole photograph by Caitlyn Soldan

Remnants Series - No.01 // Color pinhole (lensless) photograph of a  woman standing next to a river

Quidnet // Black and white photographic paper negative pinhole photograph of a woman sitting on the edge of the ocean

Remnants Series - No.02 // Color pinhole photograph of a woman wearing a white dress standing in a bamboo forest looking out at the light

You can see more of Catie's pinhole photos on her website www.catiesoldan.com

All photos and text © Copyright Caitlyn Soldan and reproduced by permission