Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day - Is it dying? Can it be resuscitated?

[scyg]

I’ve become disenchanted with WPPD now that ~70% of the work is from digital devices. Most of those are so smudgy and poor that they’re not worth looking at, frankly.

I think this has a lot to do with the organizers' neglect. Projects that are just barely maintained don't attract engaged and enthusiastic participants. In this case, fewer and fewer "serious" pinhole photographers bother to post, lowering the overall quality, which gets people turned off, which attracts fewer quality posts, and so on in a vicious circle.
The way I see it this is way too big a project in the pinhole photography world to simply ignore. It's either try to boost the project's profile independently of the organizers, or - not my preferred option since I'm averse to conflict and this is supposed to be fun - start a new project on the same day that does what it should be doing and let the original live or die on its own.
Ideally I'd like to see the project handed over to an open and accountable organization, preferably a dedicated non-profit that would carry it forward. But that seems unlikely to happen.

 

[mcfitz]

I've participated in WWPPD since 2015, and it was what launched me into making my pinholes and starting to do pinhole photography.

Some of the things I like about it - it's world wide.
The rules are simple.
People participate and the variety of pinhole cameras used is fantastic. The home made and imaginative ones are the best.
There are groups that get children involved, and the kids love it. often their comments show what a feeling of accomplishment this brings them. Bravo, I say, given what challenges children face everywhere these days.

I started doing my pinholes alone, and learned so much about photography itself from doing so. At the same time I had a feeling of doing something in a world wide context with other people who didn't perceive that what I was doing might be weird. Call it pinhole normalcy affirmation, if you so wish.

Many years, it was a real boost to January and a new year, as I'd start a new pinhole project for myself to build and solve the problems that came along with it. One such was making pinholes in the plastic 35mm cannisters film's packaged in.

I've gotten photographer friends involved in it as well. Some have preferred digital, most used film. When I'm out with my odd pinhole cameras, people will come and ask me what I'm doing, and are really interested and taken aback by the subject.

As for the website, it's the way it is. But it seems to me there is still a lot of organisation that goes into keeping it going. It's run by volunteers, each submission is vetted, and there are options to view and use the site in many different languages.

Bravo, I say, to the organisers and volunteers who DO keep it going, depsite all the problems and challenges that are inevitably going to be there.

Sure, it could be taken over or become more organsied or organised differently and have a fancier web site etc etc. Somehow the website in its current, unchanged state, is also in the spirit of pinhole photography - or at least so it seems to me, wayward pinhole photographer that I am.

I'd sooner say cancel Christmas than WWPPD, it's a holy (get it?) secular event, if not actually a holiday - which it should be if you ask me (although no one did ask).

 

[DWThomas]

I’ve become disenchanted with WPPD now that ~70% of the work is from digital devices. Most of those are so smudgy and poor that they’re not worth looking at, frankly.

Enh, perhaps it's an issue of expectations. I have viewed it as an inclusive effort targeted toward bringing people around the world together doing something that doesn't blow up the planet. If it gets people actively learning, and maybe inspired to go further, that's cool. And even if they don't go further, they may well gain some appreciation of those who do. After all, it's not a juried exhibition with "thousands of dollars in awards!"

Also, someone here may remember -- I'm vaguely recalling that one of the individuals involved early in organizing WPPD passed away a few years back? That might account for some slowing. But that said, I believe I got a post in my Facebook feed more than a month ago about WPPD coming up in April, etc.

I admit I prefer to see more traditional wet darkroom work, but in today's world more people likely have access to digital gear than darkrooms. (And one of the largest online photo stores in the US won't ship me some chemicals.) When really young kids are involved, chemical handling risks some possible problems too.

About five years ago I bought an extra body cap for my Canon EOS gear thinking I would try pinhole on my venerable EOS 40D, mainly to find out how well I could do it, thereby possibly finding out whether the blurry images I've seen were just how it is -- or bad craftsmanship. Alas, never got a round tuit!

For sure on the WPPD site I have seen some really creative work done in building the cameras and seen some really nice images from parts of the world I haven't been to -- and at my advanced age, never will.

Anyway, I like @mcfitz 's take on it.

 

[retina_restoration]

Enh, perhaps it's an issue of expectations. I have viewed it as an inclusive effort targeted toward bringing people around the world together doing something that doesn't blow up the planet.

Sure, I get that. But I'm more interested in the quality of the work submitted, and with a dramatic increase in the number of digital images (made on tiny sensors), the quality has gone down significantly. It doesn't do anything to encourage me to participate anymore.

 

[scyg]

I'd sooner say cancel Christmas than WWPPD, it's a holy (get it?) secular event, if not actually a holiday - which it should be if you ask me (although no one did ask).

That's where my concern is coming from - with participation declining, and with a seeming lack of enthusiasm from the organizers, combined with their apparent unwillingness to bring others onboard who might be more fired up about it, I'm not sure if it will survive much longer.

I think helping them despite themselves is better than watching it die a slow death of neglect.

 

[mcfitz]

That's where my concern is coming from - with participation declining, and with a seeming lack of enthusiasm from the organizers, combined with their apparent unwillingness to bring others onboard who might be more fired up about it, I'm not sure if it will survive much longer.

I think helping them despite themselves is better than watching it die a slow death of neglect.

Then here you go, a contact form so you can share your concerns and participate in some way, since this is of concern to you.

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day

pinholeday.org

Because otherwise, soliciting opinions from members of a totally separate photography website and community doesn't really do much good, it seems to me.

And ouch! I'm reluctant to dispense advice especially to strangers on internet websites, but oh dear, beware of flying in with advice to "help them despite themselves..."

That might not work out too well.

 

[scyg]

Then here you go, a contact form so you can share your concerns and participate in some way, since this is of concern to you.

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day

pinholeday.org

Because otherwise, soliciting opinions from members of a totally separate photography website and community doesn't really do much good, it seems to me.

And ouch! I'm reluctant to dispense advice especially to strangers on internet websites, but oh dear, beware of flying in with advice to "help them despite themselves..."

That might not work out too well.

I mentioned earlier that I had offered to help directly to the organizers and was told they didn't need any. I agree that if I hadn't done that, this whole thread would be completely baseless.

As to "soliciting opinions", I didn't realize things were so compartmentalized that I couldn't ask a question about working on a photographic event here without offending someone's sensibilities.

And thanks for the advice - I should have said "help the event despite the organizers". Clearly they themselves don't feel they need help.

 

[MellowCat]

Oddly enough the latest Lensless Podcast has Nick Dvoracek on, who runs WPPD.

 

[Nick Dvoracek]

I want you all to know I’ve seen the thread. It’s kind of cool to see how active this discussion is.
I do want to respond to several points but want to take the time to write it well, and I want to get input from our admittedly small group behind the curtain.
One quick response I am willing to make is if you want better quality in the gallery, submit the best picture you take on Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day - April 30th in 2023. You have until June 30th to submit your contribution.

 

[retina_restoration]

I want you all to know I’ve seen the thread. It’s kind of cool to see how active this discussion is.
I do want to respond to several points but want to take the time to right it well, and I want to get input from our admittedly small group behind the curtain.
One quick response I am willing to make is if you want better quality in the gallery, submit the best picture you take on Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day - April 30th in 2023. You have until June 30th to submit your contribution.

Are there plans to make it possible to click on an image to bring up a larger version of it for viewing? One thing I find disappointing about the site is how tiny the images are. Thank you for making it all possible!

 

[Nick Dvoracek]

It’s really great to have such a spirited discussion about Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day take place. Thank you all. This is kind of a long response to a variety of issues you’ve brought up.

Early in 2016, we had a crisis that nearly stopped us cold and didn’t think recruiting people would be responsible until we knew what happened. We have kept up a mild presence on social media since then and depended on that for publicity, as has the rest of the world. We could get better about this and have a few ideas. We still don’t think it would help to have a large formal organization, but we’d like to depend on you to crowdsource the promotion of the event - not only on social media (“Like and Share”}, but also in your local clubs and networks. If Simon’s idea of “Friends of Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day” would help to accomplish this, that sounds like a great idea to us.

Submitting seems to work well. The biggest issue is that submissions of 12 MP files combined with low bandwidth can time out the server. As somebody mentioned, we have an email contact contact@pinholeday.org, and one of us usually responds in less than half a day during the submission period.

We’ve never organized a print exchange.

I’ll try to nag post more to Photrio this year to remind you of the date.

Digital is a little alien to me too. We’ve discussed this several times in the past and it comes down to none of us want to be told what is an appropriate way to make a pinhole photograph. The camera doesn’t take the picture, the photographer does.

There was a comment that the site wasn’t of much utility. We do keep a Resources Page. Back when Simon was involved in the original Translation team, there were ambitions to be the place for pinhole on the internet, but by about 2003 we knew we couldn’t keep up with a Google search.

The web site looks out of date. It’s tricky. The site is written in Java and PHP. It’s a really complicated series of accounts with different authorities and approvals and data tables with sortable and searchable fields generating web pages on the fly. Kinda funny you’re mentioning this on PHPBB, which looks the same as v1.0 did in 2000. The WPPD website was written and maintained by Gregg Kemp from 2001 until he finally found a new qualified webmaster a couple months before he died. The sparse amount of time they got to work together combined with a pretty complicated PHP upgrade that broke a lot of the site a couple of months before Pinhole Day very nearly killed us, but somehow the new webmaster pulled it off and has kept it going. It generally works very well.

We are working on displaying larger versions of the images in a way that works well on all platforms.

Our youngest team member (39 yrs old) mentioned in our discussion of this that we’re notable in that we have no commercial arrangements, advertisements or user sharing agreements (look at the top of this page) at all and the way our data is gathered and displayed, it’s really useless to the bad guys. Our primitive web design signals our early World Wide Web participatory values.

I’ve already mentioned that if you feel the quality of the imagery in the gallery is low, the solution is to make it better. My challenge to committed pinholers is “let’s see what you got.” Can you take a great pinhole photograph on Pinhole Day no matter what? We also have great affection for the rookies, who might not have the most successful exposures. Show them what pinhole can be. And take a minute to look over those first workshop pictures. Each group has its own character. You can often find one kid who gets a really good image among a sea of pictures of the paving on the town square.

And seeing all the different cameras is amazing.

By now you’re happy I’m at the bottom line. What the team behind Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is about is this holiday of celebrating Pinhole Photography, and leaving evidence that we all did it together on one day a year, all over the globe.

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day in 2023 is on April 30th. You have until June 30th to submit your best image taken that day (on any photographic medium you have). http://pinholeday,org

 

[scyg]

Hi Nick, thanks for the reply. There's obviously a lot going on that most of us on the outside don't know about. What was the big crisis in 2016? (Sorry, that seems to have been a "leap" year for me and I don't recall hearing anything about it.) Has it been resolved to a point where you might open up the organizing team to others? I'm curious, because having been involved in the project from the start, I'd really like it to be not only increasingly engaging to newer generations of pinhole photographers, but also to draw in people who haven't tried pinhole photography to try it out. After posting the original message I thought about my own attitude, and decided that I would again organize at least one event locally. However, I still stand by my statement that things aren't looking good in terms of promoting the event, and the declining (or at best plateauing at a rather low level) numbers of participants seems to support this. Bringing on new people seems like a good start to start turning things around. Unless I'm misreading something, it seems like the risk of doing so isn't huge, since like the site itself, the organization isn't really ripe for abuse by nefarious players.
I'm fine doing my bit of locally and on my own, or as part of an informal group dedicated to promoting the event - though this thread makes me think there aren't a whole lot of people who share my interest in this. But a real promotional effort would have to involve people around the globe, and would best be done by someone within the organizing group, similarly to how things were done in the early years.

 

[Perry Way]

cool, didn't know this was still a thing. I'm back after over a decade of inactivity. think I'll participate this year just for the spirit

 

[Nick Dvoracek]

cool, didn't know this was still a thing. I'm back after over a decade of inactivity. think I'll participate this year just for the spirit

Glad to hear it. We want the breadth of pinhole photograpy represented, so it's great to have this interest from experienced pinholers. You could be the inspiration for some kid who's looking at the gallery because they just did their first workshop on Pinhole Day.

 

[Perry Way]

Glad to hear it. We want the breadth of pinhole photograpy represented, so it's great to have this interest from experienced pinholers. You could be the inspiration for some kid who's looking at the gallery because they just did their first workshop on Pinhole Day.

Although I sold off all my last gear, which was all 4x5. I can't process 4x5 any more, don't have a darkroom, so I'm waiting for my RSS 6x9. Which I have every intention of taking with me as my backpacking camera on long backpacking trips. My general plan on backpacking trips is one pinhole a day minimum. Sure wish I had my Zero Image 4x5 Deluxe though. I kind of kick myself for selling all that off. It was the last camera I sold too. Sold everything off before that Zero Image and processing equipment for 4x5.

 

[Nick Dvoracek]

Although I sold off all my last gear, which was all 4x5. I can't process 4x5 any more, don't have a darkroom, so I'm waiting for my RSS 6x9. Which I have every intention of taking with me as my backpacking camera on long backpacking trips. My general plan on backpacking trips is one pinhole a day minimum. Sure wish I had my Zero Image 4x5 Deluxe though. I kind of kick myself for selling all that off. It was the last camera I sold too. Sold everything off before that Zero Image and processing equipment for 4x5.

If you're not put off by cardboard and a little glue, you can make a camera very like the RSS in case it doesn't get there by April 30th.

Camera designs and plans

Pinhole photographs and musing on pinhole photography

pinholica.blogspot.com

 

[Perry Way]

If you're not put off by cardboard and a little glue, you can make a camera very like the RSS in case it doesn't get there by April 30th.

Camera designs and plans

Pinhole photographs and musing on pinhole photography

pinholica.blogspot.com

View attachment 330376

Yes, I have made a number of them actually. Your collection is very DIY My collection was mainly based on film backs. I like using the old Mamiya Press film backs for 120 film. They have the absolute flattest plane possible because they bend the film one direction coming off the spool and then on winding side it's reversed direction so the curl is eliminated as a possibility. That, and because they are modular you could have two each with different film and just swap out the camera body.

My RSS is on the way right now being shipped. So it's all good. I'll save my Mcguyver skills for another day.

 

[Donald Qualls]

The larger size tins loose leaf tea is sold in are big enough to bend a 4x5 sheet in corner to corner, with the pinhole in another corner. A few inches of ABS drain pipe, a coupler, another shorter piece, and two caps can do for developing 4x5, too -- not very efficient of developer, but how often will you need it before you find yourself back to buying 4x5 processing equipment again?

 

[Nick Dvoracek]

Yes, I have made a number of them actually. Your collection is very DIY My collection was mainly based on film backs. I like using the old Mamiya Press film backs for 120 film. They have the absolute flattest plane possible because they bend the film one direction coming off the spool and then on winding side it's reversed direction so the curl is eliminated as a possibility. That, and because they are modular you could have two each with different film and just swap out the camera body.

You can make something like that too.

The Variable Cuboid Pinhole Camera System

Evil Cube film path My favorite camera recently has been the new Evil Cub e, and the original Evil Cube before that, admittedl...

pinholica.blogspot.com

 

[Xylo]

My collection was mainly based on film backs. I like using the old Mamiya Press film backs for 120 film. They have the absolute flattest plane possible

You know, film flatness is not really that important with pinhole since they have unlimited depth of field and unlimited depth of focus

But yeah, I did notice that there are fewer participants, but I believe that it's pretty much across the board for all photography related events.

I used to make a yearly poster for the World Toy Camera Day (I love poster design)... but now this is pretty much gone too.

Somehow I feel that inflation and uncertainty are probably the biggest enemies of events like that.

 

[Don_ih]

Somehow I feel that inflation and uncertainty are probably the biggest enemies of events like that.

Maybe - or perhaps the enthusiasm for connecting with others across the globe over a particular interest has waned as people become more mired in online existence.

However, I never knew there was a World Toy Camera Day.

 

[Xylo]

Yeah, it always happened on the 3rd weekend of October.
I'm surprised that Mike Barnes, the founder of both the Toycamera forums (now closed) and of the Toy Camera day chose this date as it's always a bit of a freeze-your-a$$-a-palooza weekend here in Canada (he used to live in Ottawa which is not really warm at that time of the year).

 

[Nick Dvoracek]

Yeah, it always happened on the 3rd weekend of October.
I'm surprised that Mike Barnes, the founder of both the Toycamera forums (now closed) and of the Toy Camera day chose this date as it's always a bit of a freeze-your-a$$-a-palooza weekend here in Canada (he used to live in Ottawa which is not really warm at that time of the year).

The last Sunday in April was chosen as Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day because winter would be mostly over, even in Canada, in the Northern Hemisphere, and still mild Autumn in most of the Southern.

 

[MattKing]

Yeah, it always happened on the 3rd weekend of October.
I'm surprised that Mike Barnes, the founder of both the Toycamera forums (now closed) and of the Toy Camera day chose this date as it's always a bit of a freeze-your-a$$-a-palooza weekend here in Canada (he used to live in Ottawa which is not really warm at that time of the year).

Trivia: Ottawa has the lowest winter temperatures of any national capital. Anywhere in the world!
For many Canadians, this observation often is followed by a statement like: "This explains so much!"

 

[Donald Qualls]

Ottawa has the lowest winter temperatures of any national capital. Anywhere in the world!

I would have thought Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Reykjavik, or Moscow would have had that distinction. All are much further north, by latitude, than Ottawa, and Moscow's winters are (in)famous. The others are all on the sea, but Moscow is not...