VRC Exhibition | Capturing Light and Time: Pinhole Cameras and Photographs

Feb. 14, 2011 to Aug. 12, 2012, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Location: Sutton Hall
Untitled, 2010 pinhole photograph - Yae Chung

The cameras and photographs on display represent work produced in the fall of 2010 by fifth semester architecture students in Judy Birdsong's topic-based design studio organized around the theme oflight and time in architecture. As a means of introducing students to fundamental principles of light, students constructed a pinhole camera, essentially a simple box with a single small aperture that employs the same optical principles as the camera obscura. Despite the simple program and inflexible constraints, the result was an array of inventine (and occassionally decorative) products that ranged from straightforward, but beautifully designed shells, to those that allowed for multiple views, multiple exposures, and interchangable focal lengths. The photographs chronicle the efforts of students to record the passage of time through the agency of light, the assigned subject of the second exercise of the semester. 



The students produced their photographs in the School of Architecture (SoA) Darkroom in Sutton Hall.



The VRC’s images support teaching and research. View images via the online image collection.