Pinhole photography and a familiar motif.

The view from the back, or Rückenfigur as it is known in German, has been a key motif in my work for many years now, most noticeably in the Sonnets series of images. It's something that I'm continuing to explore, with a major project planned for 2013 which will hopefully breath some new life into something I've been doing for a while now.

At the moment however I'm reconnecting with the things I enjoy most about photography - going out with a roll or two of film and playing around, no pressure to produce work for exhibition or publication.

To this end I've started experimenting with pinhole photography, something I've never really engaged with before.

While researching the possibility of converting one of my box brownies I came across the work of Howard (weehamx on flickr) , an innovative Ayrshire photographer who has been working with the medium for a few years now, and has produced some really fantastic images.

A coffee was arranged, and subsequently I've been out with him a few times to learn more about the medium. Today Howard presented me with a wonderful gift: a hand made camera that he had built for me to get started with. This however is no ordinary pinhole camera, it is in fact 7 cameras in one.

With two different fronts (one wide-angle the other a more standard format) the camera shoots large 6x12 images on a roll of 120 film, or twelve smaller 6x6 images thanks to a handy insert. It also has an adjustable pinhole, so the only limitation is my imagination.

(Pinhole image made on Ilford FP4 (120 format) shot at f100 for 3/4 of a second)