Article by Glenn Gustafson

On June 20th, I participated in a very unique workshop that was hosted by the Comox Valley Art Gallery with artist Sarah Crawley. Sarah was one of the artists-in-residence at the McLoughlin Gardens this year and as part of her outreach she organized a Pinhole Camera project to involve the community in creating ‘solargraphs.’ At the workshop, participants were provided with mini-pinhole cameras that allow photographic paper inside of them to be exposed to sunlight through a tiny hole in side of each the handmade film canister cameras. The cameras were to be placed in a location of the participant’s choosing - preferably facing the sun.

As a photographer, I was quite amazed to hear that the cameras were to be positioned in a stationary place for a six-month exposure of the paper within. Then, instead of the standard development of the photo paper, it will be scanned with a high resolution scanner to reveal the image captured.

Participants are to turn in their cameras for the Winter Sosltice, after which the artist will scan the images in order to provide them to the photographers and to display them as a digital exhibition in the gallery in 2025.

I placed my camera on our backyard fence facing the forest behind our house - see below. It will be very interesting to see what type of images is captured over the next six months!