Camera & Lens Building
About Project:
I have been tinkering with building cameras and lenses in one form or another for almost as long as I have been taking photos. It all started with a little curiosity about how the cameras I was using actually even worked. Soon I was making pinholes at different "focal lengths" and attaching them to the front of my camera.
I soon found my little experiments spiraling out of control, and I graduated to taking apart old camera lenses (and anything else with any optical components for that matter) and mixing them around into my very own franken-lenses. No sooner had I done this would I start making my own cameras & camera obscuras too.
Update 10/04/22: This work and more was covered in my interview with The Phoblographer
Update 20/09/23: Work from this project was exhibited from September 20th 2023 to November 10th 2023 at the DI40 exhibition run by Esbjerg Fotoklub in Denmark. Read more about it in the links below:
Self Portrait: Taken on an early draft of my most recent Large Format digital Camera Obscura. 118mm f/2.0 (Full frame equivalent 33mm f/0.56)
A couple of my early lens designs - (Left: 4 Element Medium telephoto, Lower right: 7 element standard lens).
My Large Format digital camera obscura,
near completion. (6x4" image detection area)
As you can see, the the lenses I built for this are anything but sharp, but somehow I find them somewhat visually appealing regardless.
My Dad, completely engulfed by his surroundings - The first photo I took on my then newly completed Large format camera.