Introducing: The Vobes-Babbidge Pinhole Camera Project

With the end of another year just hours away, it's time to think ahead to what the next twelve months might hold in store. That in itself will be the topic of a forthcoming post, but for now I'd like to talk briefly about a very exciting project which I will be involved in throughout the whole of 2010...

Many of you will by now be aware of my friend and collaborator Richard Vobes - most likely as a result of following either him or myself on Twitter, or via various audio chats we have recorded this year for vobes.com (some of which have also subsequently appeared in posts here on the GBP Blog).

Well, now we have taken things one step further, embarking on an idea which Richard came up with a number of months back. Its working title is The Vobes-Babbidge Pinhole Camera Project - and we are very excited about it!

In a nutshell, we are going to be stripping back the photographic process, removing the hi-tech, super-material, computer-reliant aspect so prevalent these days, instead concentrating on producing a set of images as the final outcome of a simplified yet very involved process.

Why so involved? Well, rather than simply purchasing a pinhole camera and photographic film, we will instead be working from scratch - completely from the ground up. As such, the starting point will be to construct our camera- most likely from traditional materials such as wood, varnish, brass, leather etc. And then there's the small matter of the physical medium onto which our images will be physically recorded (clue: we want to make our own).

The final images will for part of an installation/exhibition around this time next year.

For the benefit of both ourselves and those who would like to follow our progress, Mr. V and I will be recording all of our steps along the way - via audio, video, stills and note books. We've already documented our first tentative steps via audio; you can listen to these below in order to get a better idea of just what we have in mind.

Pin Hole podcast - 001

Pin Hole podcast - 002

To keep up to date, either check by here to see new pinhole-related posts, or bookmark the Pinhole Camera Project page over on vobes.com.