Sheila Bocchine’s Pinhole Photography

Balloon-sunburst,-Phoenix

Photographer Sheila Bocchine travels the world with her pinhole camera, documenting different cultures and "all things beautiful." Her lensless pinhole camera, made from teakwood, uses medium format (120) film to produce gorgeously-surreal, square images.

On the subject of her photography, she says:

“The exposures are longer to compensate for the pinhole, which is why you will see subtle blur and motion in all of my images. Since the world rarely stands still, my pinhole camera captures all the beautiful motion and energy onto the negative, thus resulting with dreamscape-like qualities. I feel like each pinhole photograph is a marvelous dream… a surreal and whimsical moment in time that has swirled around my daydreams before coming out as the perfect pinhole photograph.”

Bunny-and-Bird,-My-Nana's-Garden

Not all of her photographs are as sunny and cheerful as the ones above; some of the images of “dead” people in her portfolio were intriguingly-creepy enough to make me ask her more about them.

The story behind the photographs was, however, far more innocuous.

Bocchine replied back, saying, "the ‘scary’ photos are from Fear Farm Haunted House in Phoenix. I was at a pumpkin farm picking up some holiday goodies and I spotted a haunted house. There was no one around so I found my way inside. It was daytime, so I didn’t think it would be as spooky as it was, but with every corner I turned my heart raced!”


Bicycle-in-SoHo
 
Fall-Festival,-Concordia
 
Mummies,-Fear-Farm-Haunted-House
 
Skeleton,--Fear-Farm-Haunted-House Skeleton-in-blood-bath,-Fear-Farm-Haunted-House 
Sea-shells,-San-Diego

Pinhole cameras, invented in the 1850’s, were the first ever photography devices to be ever created. Photographers, such as Bocchine, have been keeping this rare and historic photographic process alive by making such beautiful works of art.

Bocchine sells affordable copies of her pinhole photographs on her site. You can visit her blog to check out more of her photography.