HISTORY OF THE PINHOLE

Using the pinhole technique is one of the most authentic ways to record photographic images.
The technique is based on the principle of the camera obscura which is centuries old. Basically
it's nothing more then a lightproof box with, in the middle of one side, a tiny little hole instead
of a lens.
The light works its way through the pinhole right into the enclosed room and that is how at the
opposite side of the pinhole an image appears which is upside down. We can preserve the
image by putting material which is sensitive to light at the side where the image shows up and
develop it after exposure.
However photography was only invented in 1839 the principle of the pinhole has been known
since ages. As early as the 4th century B.C. this phenomenon was mentioned by Aristotle in
one of his writings. Light falling through a small opening between the leaves of a tree gives a
perfect projection of the sun on the ground. Even though the opening between the leaves has a
shape which is irregular and is not perfectly round, yet the image on the ground is. Aristotle
could never explain this. This happened much later in the 16th century, because scientists were
frequently experimenting with the pinhole technique.
All this started in the 13th and 14th century.
Different scientists used the pinhole principle in order to study the eclipse of the sun and the
wave-lenght of the light.
In the 15th century the technique was used by artists as an aid to make their drawings.
Leonardo da Vinci was the first to hit upon the idea of using a box for it. He described how
one could get an image on a transparant screen and trace it on the outside. But it was not until
the 16th century until this idea had come to its full development.
Lenses excisted in this century but people still used the pinhole principle to study the sun.
Scientists often stared through their (pinhole)telescopes and looked directly into the bright
sunlight. As a result they suffered from blindness. Just to spare the eyes, scientists started to use
a camera obscura (darkroom) so they could study the projected image of the sun instead of
looking at it directly. From this moment on it didn't take long before artists started to use the
camera obscura frequently.
In the 18th century the principle of the camera obscura becomes generally known and even
travellers are starting to use the phenomenon. They are using the portable version of the camera
obscura just to trace the things they see during their journeys. These "snap-shots" are pasted
into their book of travels and kept as a souvenir. If people didn't possess a camera one payed
money to enter a permanent camera-room. Here the surroundings could be seen by means of a
rotating mirror. The moving images were projected on a white table. All this was very popular
until the official invention of photography in 1839. From this moment on there was no need to
trace images anymore and the pinhole principle was completely forgotten.
Until the most famous pinhole picture of that time showed up, a photograph of 1890 from
George Davison, The Onion Field. This picture won the highest price at the annual exhibition
of the Photographic Society in London. This particular picture was the beginning of the
popularity of the pinhole camera which would last for several years.
There were some american companies that put pinhole cameras on the market and even a
special pinhole disc that could replace the lens of a regular camera.
From the 20th century the pinhole camera lost popularity. Making images with a camera like
this was considered to be inferior. The reason of this was most probably the growing need for
speed and mass production of photographic equipment. Finally the principle was only used to
teach people the basic techniques of photography. Between 1940 and 1960 the pinhole
technique was completely forgotten.
From 1960 until now pinhole photography is being used sporadically by artists.

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