TOUCH OF SPACETIME
The Touch of Spacetime… What do I understand by this concept? It’s an intense experience of place and time, a strong impact on consciousness and subconsciousness. It’s the mark that this moment and place leave in my mind. I look at the subject, and my imagination guides me on how what I photograph will look in the picture. Because I use film photography, I don’t have the ability for quick verification of whether what I did matches what I see and what I imagined. Sometimes, it happens that after developing the film, the image surprises me to the point where I doubt whether I was really there when taking that photograph. This happened with the photos from Prague, from the Charles Bridge, stripped of its charm by crowds of tourists. You can’t see it in the photos, but thanks to the magic of Kodak Ektar, extraordinary colors appeared.
The optical imperfections of pinhole cameras mean that we can’t accurately replicate the observed image. Most often, we have distorted geometry, perspective, and color, but the extended exposure time means that the final result isn’t always predictable. It turns out that the biggest design flaws are the greatest strengths of this technique.
Is pinhole photography just a technique? Is it another type of brush? For people who haven’t tried it and haven’t developed a liking for it, such a comparison might work. Every tool has its specificity that reflects on the final result. A painter can’t create an oil painting using watercolors.
Using a pinhole camera encourages me to be calm, contemplative, and to reflect on space, light, and time.
