A year or so back, I started to wonder: what if I hand held my camera instead of keeping it locked on top of a tripod? Pinhole cameras are slow – exposure times are long, from a few seconds to more than an hour. Up to then I had always used a tripod with pinhole cameras, and most of the images I made could be described as landscapes. Hand holding the camera would require a bigger aperture – to get more light to the film, quicker – and I expected that the pictures would be blurred and abstract. It would be a different approach to street photography, and I hoped that the pictures I got would catch the energy of people on the move.
Around the same time, Todd Schlemmer was designing his terraPin cameras, and a fast shutter to go with them. The 6x9 version (new & updated version here) of that camera was just what I needed.
Last summer, for the first time, I brought the camera to a march – and then, since November, so many people have been in the street. I’ve been there too, making images.
More of the images I made are here on this site under Street Life. The prints are Van Dyke brown on printmaking paper, in editions of five.
