Dowling Walsh Gallery

Chris Pinchbeck

Article Feature

Chris Pinchbeck has recently participated in a "Take 5 Interview." The Take 5 Interview series is a continuation of featuring selected pinhole artists from around the planet. Each artist is asked a set of five questions that will shed light on their persona, their portfolio, and their creative take on this intriguing art form called pinhole photography. To read the rest of the article, click on the link here in blue.

Biography

Chris Pinchbeck combines his love for the landscape with his skills as a photographer. His images garner the viewer's appreciation and awe for the beautiful place we live. Beyond this initial reaction he hopes to instigate a more complex and individually driven proactive response. He writes, "We need more sharing, fostering, selfless initiative and stewardship if we hope to preserve this tremendous fragile gift."

He currently works with a unique pinhole camera format unlike any other camera. Pinchbeck has converted a two-wheel, enclosed utility trailer into a "camera obscura." While the smallness of the lensless opening offers infinite sharpness, it also creates the need for very long exposure times, typically one to six hours, thereby recording movement in nature not captured on modern cameras. The light is received by a direct positive, color, photographic paper measuring upwards of eight feet wide by four feet tall. Each original image is one of a kind as there is no negative material involved in his process. It is currently the world's largest direct positive, pinhole imagery in existence.

Artist's Statement

"This project was born from a need to keep the magic of photography alive within myself. It was born from a passion for tinkering, a passion to see and record the tremendous world we live in.

It allowed me to witness and be a conduit for the medium of pinhole photography and its power to capture nature in a way modern photography is incapable. Long exposure times and print size combined with sharpness unlimited by optics provides for a unique presence and layering.

The medium is now a part of photographic history as the advent of digital has made this paper, the chemicals and machines used to process it - obsolete. They are the worlds largest, one-of-a-kind, direct positive pinholes ever to be made.

The process invigorated my soul and kept the magic of photography and nature thriving within me, and in so, served its purpose.

I can only hope you enjoy the images as well and are equally invigorated."