I took this series of images (Title – Lockdown ‘Street Bingo’ Captured in Pinhole) in Liverpool, UK on Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day (26th April 2020) which I shot using medium format HP5+ at 400 ISO and Kodak TMAX 100, using an ONDU 6×9 wooden pinhole camera.
Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is something that I love taking part in every year. Usually I would be running workshops and photowalks through my business Little Vintage Photography but sadly this year with lockdown happening, these were of course, put on hold.
In such strange times and with many aspects of life already forcing us to slow down, in the end, pinhole photography actually seemed to be the perfect way of capturing the view of my lockdown world and a unique opportunity to record a slice of social history. I was lucky enough to have been sent a wooden 6×9 ONDU pinhole camera which arrived, out of the blue, the day before WPPD so it seemed destined to be!
Our neighbours had put a note through our letterbox that morning to say that they were going to be running ‘Street Bingo’ the following day to raise everyone’s spirits, and asked anyone who wanted to take part, to be at their front doors and they’d call out numbers through a megaphone, with prizes of toilet roll and prosecco for the winners!
Normally I’d get quite close to my subject with a pinhole camera, because it’s a great way of getting some interesting perspectives, but of course on this occasion that wasn’t possible, so instead, I stood on the opposite side of the road and simply asked everyone to hold still for 5 seconds. Luckily, with the beautiful sunshine we’d been enjoying, it was possible to capture most people in this way and having now processed the rolls in my home darkroom, it was really exciting to see how they’d come out!
Of course, they’re not perfect images, but I think they have a certain charm to them and for me, that’s what analogue photography is all about.
About the author:
Rachel Brewster-Wright is a hybrid photographer specialising in traditional processes and is a regular contributor to the photographic industry.
She is an analogue educator, wedding photographer, ambassador for female photographers and women in STEM, founder of #shootfilmbenice, co-host of the Sunny 16 Podcast and inventor of the Analogue Adventurer kit.
You can find her Analogue Academy membership at: patreon.com/littlevintagephoto
Do you have a story to tell, too ?
Project DOCUPAN is driven by the analog community, striving to record a history of the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic through the lenses of analog photographers all over the globe. Click below and become a part of a project we don’t know yet how large it will grow.
Tell and share your story and help to record history in a project that has never been done before.
Do you have a story to tell, too ?
Project DOCUPAN is driven by the analog community, striving to record a history of the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic through the lenses of analog photographers all over the globe. Click below and become a part of a project we don’t know yet how large it will grow.
Tell and share your story and help to record history in a project that has never been done before.
More from Project DOCUPAN:
17: Stockholm – by Astrid Robertsson
I took these photos on 35mm Ilford HP5+ and FP4+ which I then developed and scanned at home. The photos were taken with a Canon Eos 500 camera and 50mm lens in Stockholm between March and April this year when the coronavirus pandemic was accelerating in Europe.I took...
16: Submerged – by Simon Wolfson
Series taken with Ilford HP5 Plus 120 film, and a Yashicaflex Model A camera. Johannesburg, South Africa. This series, a mixture of abstract and portrait photography, represents my vision of the 2020 Covid-19 lock-down. I've entitled the series 'Submerged' after the...
14: Business as Ususal? by Stephan Wilke
The first two pictures and the last were taken with a Minolta CLE with an Elmarit M 28mm lens from Leica, the third and fourth picture with Canon T90 with Canon FDn 17mm f4 lens and fifth picture with a Canon Eos 1 with Canon EF 24mm f2,8 lens. I used expired Fuji...
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