Classes

Not pinhead. PinHOLE.: Make Your Own Camera

As early as 1021 AD an Arab physicist was already puttering around with the idea of cameras. His name was Ibn al-Haytham and in his Book of Optics he wrote the first correct understanding of how vision works when he hypothesized that it was due to light rays entering the eye rather than being emitted. His thinking soon led to the idea of the pinhole camera and the rest is history. Satisfy your insatiable curiosity about the origins of the pinhole technique here.

On December 6, 2008, Yo Darkroom will host a workshop called Make Your Own Camera: Pinhole Photography that will teach you to build your own handmade camera that operates off the pinhole photography technique. This is a great project for the family as long as the kids are at least 10 years old. It takes about four hours to make a pinhole camera – in this age of everything digital it is sometimes refreshing to get back to basics.

The only thing you need to bring is an empty light tight container with lid. Quaker Oatmeal cans are great for pinhole cameras. The rest of the materials will be provided by Yo Darkroom for a $10 materials fee. The class itself costs $53 for members and $59 for non-members. There is a special family price that you might be interested in. Follow the link here to learn more.

After your camera is built, you will learn to make contact prints and use the darkroom chemicals.

Yo Darkroom is your community resource for learning and participating in popular photography, arts and crafts classes. It is located at 113 North 23rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103.

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