Through the patient eye of the pinhole camera, time is stretched and ultimately upended, yielding ethereal panoramas where harp precision makes way for deeper resonance of memory, imagining, and contemplation.

Around ten years ago, with the rise of digital photography and the advent of social media, I decided I wanted to slow down as a photographer. With the ubiquity of the cell phone camera and the addition of apps like Instagram, I began to feel slightly overwhelmed by this plethora of new imagery.

I wanted to trade, at least occasionally, the precision and instant gratification of digital photography for something that required me to spend more time with my subjects, to immerse myself in the meaning and the simple composition of each frame. I wanted to get back to the mystery that happens in the “black box."

What I did not anticipate is that stripping back to this most basic method of shooting would somehow yield images that seemed more elemental. The pinhole camera seemed to capture, like no other camera I've used before, the feeling of a place.

The simple mechanics of this device – having no viewfinder, lens or shutter – can make photographing with the cameras a challenge but also, once comfortable, a zen-like experience.

Where digital photography is like great non-fiction, pinhole photography somehow has the emotional honestly and subjective truth of a great novel. Each images carries with it a story or many different stories.

The Cameras:

4.5-in.
4×5 camera – f256

5-in.
4×5 camera – f287

6-in.
4×5 camera – f352

14-in.
4×5 camera – f444

(These approximate the focal lengths of a 22mm,  30mm,  35mm,  50mm,  70mm and a 120mm lens from the perspective of a 35mm SLR camera)

My first two pinhole cameras were made by a company called Leonardo and can be found online at a site called Pinhole Resource.

However, after using these two cameras for a while, I enlisted the help of my brother, Henry Falco, a recording engineer and woodworking artist, to help expand my pinhole camera collection. Henry has built me a whole series of pinhole cameras since. The cameras accept traditional 4×5 inch and 8×10 inch film holders which can be loaded with sheet film, in the field, with a portable darkroom. To help with the handicap of having no viewfinder, I designed the cameras to approximate the focal lengths of the 35mm camera lenses I’ve used in my professional career as a photojournalist and commercial photographer over the last twenty years.

When determining the focal length in a pinhole camera, we need to look at the depth of the camera: the distance from the pinhole to the film. This distance from the pinhole to the film determines the focal length of the camera as well as determining the diameter of the pinhole needed to expose the entire sheet of film in the back of the camera. Depending on the situation, I can choose from several different cameras.

Working with the pinhole cameras can be challenging. As stated, there is no viewfinder, so composing takes careful consideration. There is a limited amount of film and film holders I can carry. This means typically taking only one frame of film per subject. To attain a “sharp” image the camera always needs to be on a tripod. There is no photoshopping or retouching in the Collections, only basic toning/color correction and traditional darkroom techniques.