Pinhole statement

Who tells us that the night sky with its billions of stars could not be something totally different to what it seems to be? Let us imagine that the lustrous stars are little holes in a cardboard box in which we sit, not able to anticipate that there is a world outside. Or imagine instead that we are merely a projected image of this unknown world. Regarding ourselves as being part of reality, we would become instead a caricature of a different reality, one upon which we have no influence.

Exploring the principals of pinhole cameras brings up thoughts like these. Particularly when we are not dealing with only one pinhole, but with more than one hundred in a single camera. The photographic results achieved with these custom-designed and built cameras are unpredictable and far removed from how humans see. They remind us of pictures from scientific magazines but always cast an element of doubt about the actual depicted matter, leaving room for the various projections of the beholder.

© Carmen Oberst, Hamburg, Januar 2003