JUNE 20 | 11:00AM | PINHOLE CAMERA + SOLARGRAPHY EVENT
Sarah Crawley visits CVAG to talk about pinhole cameras/solargraphy — including how to choose the best sites and securely install cameras — with participants of the Pinhole Camera Project and others interested.
Timestamps:
0:00 – 4:00 – Intro
7:20 – 7:56 – Solargraphy
7:56 – 11:17 – Pinhole Artists Collective
11:17 – 13:25 – How Pinhole Photography Works
13:25 – 14:46 – DIY Solargraphy
14:46 – 19:50 – Showing the Cameras
19:50 – 23:27 – Installing the Camera
23:27 – 34:40 – Showing the Pictures
34:40 – 57:54 – Q&A
JUNE 20 – 22 | CAMERA PICK UP
Free pinhole camera kits will be distributed to registered participants between 11:45am – 4:30pm on Thursday, June 20.
For those unable to get to the gallery on Thursday, pinhole camera kits can also be picked up between 10:00am – 4:30pm on Friday, June 21, or Saturday, June 22.
Check in with CVAG staff at the gallery HUB | SHOP⋮MADE.
PINHOLE CAMERA PROJECT | ENGAGING COMMUNITY IN THE MAGIC OF SOLARGRAPHY
An invitation to the community to take part in “seeing” our favourite places through a tiny lens:
Artist Sarah Crawley and the Comox Valley Art Gallery are inviting the community to participate in a magical lens-based project. Participants will capture selected outdoor spaces in the Comox Valley in a six-month long exposure using pinhole cameras.
The plan is to have 100 cameras situated throughout the valley — in a spot chosen by each individual that takes part in the project.
Small pinhole cameras that have been put together by the CVAG student interns + gallery assistants + the artist will be given out to those who sign up to participate in the project. After six months, the cameras will be brought back to the gallery, where they will be opened and the images developed to create solargraphs (unique photographic pictures that result from the tiny pinhole of sunlight exposing the special paper inside the cameras). The images will be shared by the gallery as a digital exhibition in 2025. Paper-based copies will be given to each participant to keep.
How to take part in the project:
- register online (sorry, registration is now closed)
- attend the pick up day event on June 20 to get your camera, meet the artist + learn more about solargraghy
- install the camera at your chosen site as soon as possible after pick up
- take down + return the camera on December 21 during the Solstice Celebration — take down the camera + bring it to the gallery between 10:00am – 6:00pm
- or return another day — return the camera to CVAG on December 20 between 10:00am – 5:00pm, December 22 between 12:00 – 5:00pm, or December 23 between 10:00am – 4:00pm (if for some reason you are not able to return the camera before the holiday break, please bring it to the gallery by end of day on January 11)
NOTE: We’d love to see photos of camera locations! Participants can share on social media with #CVAGPinholeCameraProject and @ComoxValleyArtGallery.
MAY 30 – JUNE 20 | REGISTRATION
UPDATE: Registration is now closed. All 100 cameras have been distributed.
WHAT IS A PINHOLE CAMERA? A simple lensless camera with a pinhole sized aperture — effectively a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. Light passes through the aperture and projects an inverted image of the outside scene onto the inside of the box. This natural optical phenomenon is called a “camera obscura”. The size of the images depends on the distance between the object and the pinhole.
WHAT IS SOLARGRAPHY? A slow technological process of creating photographs of the daily path of the sun across the sky using a pinhole camera and exposure periods measured in days, months, or years.
Pinhole images courtesy of artist from a Winnipeg community Pinhole Camera Project.
SARAH CRAWLEY | ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Sarah Crawley is a photo-based artist whose work explores aspects of memory and identity based on ideas generated from lived experience. Working primarily with analog photography she has also explored combining printmaking – specifically screen-printing, etching and blind embossing – with the photographic image. Her works have been exhibited as large-scale prints, installations and book works. Crawley has mounted numerous solo exhibitions in galleries across Canada including The ODD Gallery (Dawson City, YK), Estevan Art Gallery and Museum (Estevan, SK), Platform Centre for Photographic and Digital Arts (Winnipeg, MB), aceartinc (Winnipeg MB), Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba (Brandon, MB), The Photographers Gallery (Saskatoon, SK), Stride Gallery (Calgary, AB) and Gallery Connexion (Fredericton, NB). Her photographic works have been included in many group exhibitions including Subconscious City at The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Latitudes at the Belgrade Cultural Centre, Serbia and Proof (2) at Gallery 44, (Toronto, ON). Her work is held in the City of Winnipeg Public Art Collection, The Province of Manitoba Art Collection, The Government of Canada Global Affairs Department Art Collection, The Walter Phillips Gallery Collection at The Banff Centre for the Arts, and the Visual Art Bank of the Manitoba Arts Council, among others. An active member of the visual art community in Winnipeg, Crawley enjoys sharing her passion for photography through teaching and mentoring and is currently engaged in a community public art project with the South Valour Residents Association through the Winnipeg Arts Council’s WITH ART program.
Crawley acknowledges living on and engaging with Treaty One Territory, the original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and the homeland of the Red River Métis Nation. The artist gratefully acknowledges the support of the Winnipeg Arts Council, the Manitoba Arts Council and John Ervin.
Past projects at CVAG by Sarah Crawley:
as the wind blew: the ground beneath me, at the water’s edge, in its path