Project: Pinhole camera photography workshop

One of the main goals of Architecture Week is to inspire us all to think creatively about the architecture and spaces around us. The Architecture Centre, Bristol engaged local people in a unique exploration of the architecture of the Harbourside through a pinhole photography workshop.

Over thirty people gathered at the Architecture Centre to enter a new world of DIY and make their own cameras out of recycled beer cans. Led by internationally renowned pinhole photography expert Justin Quinnell, the participants built their cameras and then spilled out onto the Harbourside to view the urban landscape from a new perspective: through the lens of a pinhole.

They propped their cameras on the ground or on protruding bits of the urban landscape and curled up in the 'pinhole crouch' around their cameras. Passers-by seemed a little confused at the sight of people of all ages cradling beer cans in their arms and gazing with artistic eyes above and around them in search of a good shot. The pinhole photographers captured images of the spaces around the Architecture Centre, images that are naturally distorted by the round shape of the cameras and the photographic paper curled inside.

The Architecture Centre, Bristol was pleased to exhibit the results of the workshop and the fruitful labours of some of the thirty-two newly trained back-to-basics photographers, recyclers and urban documenters.