Jonathan Stead is a pinhole photographer living in Sheffield UK and it's my pleasure to announce him as the November 2011 CK pinhole photographer feature on www.chriskeeney.com
4 paper negative pinhole self-portraits photographs of Jonathan Stead
Artist website: www.jonathanstead.com
"I was at Uni studying graphic design and often like to incorporate my photography into project. I had just bough a DSLR and although found it amazing to learn with I quickly started to become bored with the sterile images it captured. I started to play with wide angle lenses and long exposures and one day while looking through photography books in the library I came across an amazing image that somehow spoke to me – the image was taken with a pinhole camera – ‘Er what I just spent £xxxx on a camera and all I needed was a tin and come paper or film!’ I was hooked.
For the entire summer I shot a tiny tin pinhole box and learned to develop my own film and I can honestly say that summer I fell in love with photography and that has led me down the very analogue route I have followed – I even have my own darkroom where I teach people various aspects of analogue photography. For a long time I did stray away from pinhole and began to make my own lenses and create unusual cameras, but pinhole is such a beautifully simple medium that I now use it when I just want some breathing space.
Most of the images here where taken on a recent trip to Split in Croatia, although I took a few different film cameras the elemental and slow process of creating pinhole images reflected the gentle and leisurely culture found in the Old Town of Split. I used a 5x4 zero image pinhole as I just love the large negatives and the feeling of working in singles rather than having a roll too blaze through or a ‘million capacity’ digital card. Each image is a one off, I don’t post process, I don’t worry about chemical stains I don’t mess with the crop, and there is something elemental about the feeling of taking images with a pinhole, something visceral and honest. There is an inherent purity that I like to keep part of the image. It is as much about relinquishing control as anything else. I count in my head, I used Ortho Film 25 ISO that I rated at 6 ISO and slightly pulled in the processing which gives unreal density and a huge amount of latitude.
Shooting pinhole makes you release what a plastic medium photography is, we become so used to 1/3rd of a stop adjustment (I only ever work in full stops even on my 35mm SLR) and talking about which lens is technically better and justifying spending £1000s on glass that sometimes that becomes a barrier to the photography. There is also something magical about seeing your pinhole negatives because you have never seen what you will get through a viewfinder. With most other cameras you look through the viewfinder, compose and shoot – you have seen a window into what you will capture, pinhole doesn’t give you that, even after lots of shooting it still surprises me by how much is in the frame or how a very busy place become deserted.
When I first started I remember using a light meter for every shot (now I take one at the beginning of the day and double or half from there depending on the light) and worrying that I would be a few seconds over or under on a two minute exposure! It took me a while to realize how flexible exposures where and how instinctive you could become. Further more, this has rippled through the rest of my photography – I always shoot on manual and use my light meter once or twice a day and have become good at being aware of changing light and adjusting my exposures to suit.
Pinhole teaches you many things that make good photography – patience, a more acute awareness of your surroundings and simplicity."
CK - I've been giving a lot of thought to photography lately... not to say that I normally don't think about photography. But just like anything in life sometimes you fade in and out of the things you're passionate about. I guess that way you don't burn out on it. I've been working on re-inventing myself keeping my creative edge sharp and interesting. Jonathan's thoughts and photos on pinhole photography kept me thinking along those lines. To find the things in life that excite you... then going out and actually doing them. Things that inspire you to create and express yourself. Thanks Jonathan for text and photos and I wish you all the best with your own creative journey.
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