This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Dec. 11, 2011 - Pinholio at Good Citizen Gallery showcases the huge variety of approaches to pinhole photography available to artists today.
It's actually three shows in one: local artists Mark A. Fisher and Alison Ouellette-Kirby curated a group show from pinhole photographs submitted by national and local artists, and they also brought in works by nationally known pinhole artists Nancy Spencer and Eric Renner, along with original pinhole cameras and photographs by Alabama-based Pinky/MM Bass.
The group show is eye-opening, including images with the familiar soft-focus look of the traditional pinhole technique, but also works made using wide-angle and digital pinhole processes.
The works by Spencer and Renner are eerie close-ups of figurines, made with a zone plate pinhole. Pinky/MM Bass has three large, dream-like prints, but the real treat is seeing the pinhole cameras she's constructed, one built in a bible, another built in a purse, and the third -- my favorite -- made out of a saucy black bra.
Ivy Cooper is the Beacon visual arts reviewer and a professor of art at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.