World through a pinhole Tiny portal offers a novel perspectives on life and light The Creators
By: AV Kitching Posted: 3:00 AM CST Saturday, Mar. 8, 2025

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/03/2025 (208 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The images Brenda Stuart makes with her pinhole cameras are, unlike conventional photographs, the opposite of a snapshot in time.

The artist captures the path of the sun with solargraphy, a technique where the arc of the sun’s trails are recorded straight onto photographic paper as its position in the sky changes.

Each picture contains many moments layered in one continuous exposure.

“Solargraphy is a way for me to make images that are unexpected and experimental. Images that help us ask questions on how we define a moment of time. Images that can express something alternative to the decisive moment that photography is mostly known for,” Stuart says.

She makes her own pinhole cameras using tins from thrift stores, beverage cans and old 35mm film canisters. The cameras are left in various locations; a slew of them live on her balcony and there are a few more “out in the wild.”

Each camera holds a piece of light-sensitive photographic paper inside.

“It’s a lens-less form of photography. As long as the container is waterproof and can be made light-tight, it can become a solar camera. I make a tiny hole in the camera using a pin or a fine needle for light to enter,” she explains.

Images can be made over the course of a day, week, month, year or even longer. A clear sunny day will record a strong bright arc across the photo paper. Cloudy or partially cloudy days create a series of dots and dashes.

The process combines both analog and digital techniques. The image is revealed without the use of any chemical development — a darkroom is not required. To “develop” the negative image, the photo paper is scanned or photographed to create a digital file. The image is then inverted from negative to positive and edited using photo-editing software.

Working in this format has made Stuart reconsider her idea of what makes a successful image.

Her first attempt with her homemade pinhole camera, left outside for five months, resulted in water ingress. No sun trails were captured. For a time she considered the photo a failure, but now, after some contemplation, it’s one of her favourites.

“The conditions caused the photographic paper to deteriorate, resulting in an other-worldly type landscape. There’s something interesting to me about how the destruction of the paper makes it become something else entirely,” she says.

It’s not just weather that can affect her images. Stuart has had a woodpecker poke a hole in a camera and a spider once made a home inside another. People have moved them, too.

“Each time, there was still a viable image recorded onto the photo paper. I put a camera on the river trail on a stick. We had a warm spell and the ice melted so someone propped it up against a tree. I got really amazing erratic trails of the sun,” she says.

The long-exposure technique has allowed the artist, a flight attendant by day, to explore the liminal spaces in which she resides.

“It’s strange, my life. With my job I’m crossing time zones, going from winter to tropical climes and then back again,” she says. “At times I can be very removed from the rhythms of nature. I find it grounding to make these photographs.

“On layovers, once I get my hotel room I would set up my camera on my balcony and expose it for however long my layover was. You get the end of the day and the morning — just one streak of light to mark my stay. Something to say I was there.”

Stuart posts her work on her Instagram account @brendaclairestuart (instagram.com/brendaclairestuart).

av.kitching@freepress.mb.ca