this past week i was helping teach teenagers the art of the darkroom at the gallery 44 photomagic camp. it was great to be back in the darkroom and sharing the expirience with kids who have never worked with film before. very fun!
one of the greatest parts of the week, though, actually had nothing to do with the kids... on the first day of camp we were doing pinhole cameras. pinhole cameras, as you may know, can be made from basically anything that is light tight. so Laura, the other instructor, and i decided to make our mouths into pinhole cameras! (none of the kids were interested in trying this.)
how we did this:
1) cut a nice mouth-sized piece of light sensative paper in the darkroom.
2) inserted said paper into our mouth.
3) we also had prepared an "aperture" from a piece of black foam core with a pinhole cut in it, we put this at the front of our mouths.
4) we then proceeded to walk quickely out of the darkroom with our hands over our mouths trying very hard not to laugh or drool - failing miserably at both. the darkroom is in the basement of 401 richmond so we ended up climbing two flights of stairs in this ridiculous state to find a window with some good light.
5) exposed the paper, note for anyone who plans on trying this; when you are the camera it is a good idea to try hold still when you are exposing the paper to light. this i forgot whilst my face was taking the picture...
6) ran back down the stairs in a similar, but somewhat more hilarious state as step 4.
7) spit out the aperture and paper - wash paper... - and develop. VOLA! beautiful image!!
