Well, sorry that it has been so long, since returning from the trip, my life has been somewhat crazy. Here are some images taken with my improvised large format pinhole camera. Some of them are a rather under exposed- atmospheric, however. I have reflected a lot on my trip since returning- so much effort for a few very ecclectic images and also what a wonderful experience it was. The large ones from the tent have also been processed, but have yet to be digitised.
The pinhole mayan dream has come to the end of it's first phase. Since the last entry, I have revisited the site of Xunantunich and have refound my love for the tent, working at a site very near to Poustinia itself. This site, on the land of some tough, local, but ultimately friendly farmers, was partially excavated a few years ago, before being hastily covered up again prior to a change of government and hence national archeological policy (obviously.) The owners had dark words about the archologists who worked on the site, and i thought might view me in a rather similar light- i.e.as a thieving western gold-digger. This site apparently funcitoned as a communication post between nearby Xunantunich and other larger sites, whether this is true or not, i don't know. It now spends quite a lot of its time covered in cows. Here is the tent in situ, shortly after a spot of rain.
Here is a fairly bad photograph of the ruin itself
Reassuringly, i was stopped on the road between this site and the place where we were staying by some police who told me that under no circumstances should i walk on that road. Apparantly this is due to pesky bandits/ drug dealers/ general bad apples. Fortunately, our stay was almost over, so there wasn't much time left to worry about it.
The final outing of the trip was a return to Xunantunich to do some large format black and white photos. Many of you will know my love of gaffer tape, here is some in action holding my camera to a tree.
I was just preparing to take my very last pinhole photo of the trip from the top of the main temple, and the wind blew my camera onto an unaccessible part of the ruin. It felt fitting, like a final offering/ gift to the Mayan gods. I'm sure that the occasional person will see it down there and wonder what it is...
Finally, here is the first actual pinhole photo, it is of one of the ruins on the Poustinia park and was taken on 12x8 inch paper using the tent.
I will show other images from the project as they are developed...
I have certainly tried out plenty of things this week. One of these has
been the construction of a secondary camera that i don't have to remain
inside for the duration of two hour exposures- not much fun in a baking
black tent. Unfortunately, it is quite hard to come across
light-blocking materials around here, so I settled upon some rather
attractive wood-pattern floor vinyl. Not the most appropriate stuff to
make a camera from, but it seems to do the trick in addition to looking
very knatty in the forest. still not very portable, however.
This week we also went to the ruin of Caracol which is the largest Mayan site in Belize, and one of the largest in the whole of the Mayan region. Caracol was rediscovered in the late 1930s, having lain forgotten for 1000 years. It is in the middle of a national park and because of its proximity to the Guatemalan border, and hence bandits, you need to be escorted the 10 miles or so from the forest police post to the site itself by armed guard, in our case about 10 guys with M16s. Lovely. Once there, however, it was amazing. We were the only people on the site, which has an estimated 50 000 structures on it, of which only a tiny fraction have been excavated. It was absolutely crazy to be in the middle of this deserted city covered in trees, deep in the middle of a forest reserve.
I made a rather more compact camera for the trip, using 5x4 film (see image left).
We weren't allowed that much time in the site, but it was magical, and I am hoping for some decent shots...
This is the reservoir for the main complex, now being used by archeologists for water supply while they dig.
Below is a view from the primary structure on the main plaza, containing tombs for the rulers of the city.
This is a view through the trees behind the main plaza.
Unsurprisingly, the project is a little more tricky and progress is
a little slower than anticipated. The pace of life here, combined with
the temperature, humidity and multiple other unforseen factors have led
to 'steady' progression. I have begun to realise that what I learn on
this trip is as important as the material outcomes, or at least that is
what i tell myself to prevent the red mist from descending too
drastically.
The people in Belize are wonderful and friendly- everyone I have met has been so helpful. I took a few days at the beginning of last week to travel north to a place called Crooked Tree to help run a photo workshop for some kids there. Obviously used pinhole! It was enormously educational both for the kids and for me.
I have visited a couple of the big Mayan sites so far, Xunantanich here in Belize, and Tikal in Guatemala where we stayed for a couple of days. Unfortunately Tikal, which is in some ways perfect for the work that I want to produce seemed reluctant to allow me to errect my tent on their lovingly restored site, how strange! I bet Mel Gibson didn't have that problem when shooting part of his recent epic there.
After much battling against fierce heat, humidity, cloud and then when just about ready to take an image, torrential rain, i managed to take my first large-scale image yesterday. Fingers crossed for that one, i hope that sitting in a dark tent for an hour and a half sweating profusely will pay off.
The project is evolving in a variety of ways, primarily to make it more flexible. I have discovered that carring a big tent frame, tent, polythene, paper, development chemicals and other assorted equipment is difficult, but fine if an image is guaranteed. There are no guarantees here, the weather has a knack for turning from bright sunshine to monsoon rain in the blink of an eye. For these reasons, I am developing a number of second generation cameras, built from found materials that will hopefully enable a more light footed approach which i hope will be beneficial. I am sitll in love with the tent, however, although could live hapily for a long time without sitting inside it in a big puddle of developer with chemicals all over all of my equipment and paper. I wanted to post an image of it in the forest today, but unfortunately all the images were in the wrong format, so next time.
I have also returned to something that I held on to in the developmental stages of the project which is to make images of the more forgotten Mayan ruins, remaining uncovered, of which there are masses, rather that the splendid but more mainstream sites.
Hopefully a shorter interval until the next update.
For a long period, I have wanted to build some very large-scale pinhole cameras, but had not been able to find an opportunity that seemed appropriate to the project. My training and background is as a Fine Artist, but I spend most of my life teaching or doing web programming to stay alive. Prioritising the time to make art is a difficult, but important component of my life.
Almost three years ago, I was offered the opportunity to travel to Belize in Central America, to stay on a sculpture park there. The park is amidst virgin rainforest and is in the vicinity of many ancient Mayan sites. I knew that this was a great opportunity and began writing plans and proposals. The idea was to construct pinhole cameras, which would take images in the region of 4 ft by 6 ft in size, in the rainforest around the Mayan temples and possibly upon some of the ruins themselves. Pinhole cameras offer all sorts of opportunities; they are simple to construct and refreshingly low tech. They also take images that have a magical and timeless quality. I imagine them as being perfect for this project.
Despite having been accepted onto the project, time slipped past and I hadn’t managed to get closer to actually going. Earlier this year, I saw a window of opportunity and decided that it was going to be now or never: impending domesticity, family and other commitments meant that if I didn’t do it now, I was probably never going to. I became galvanised into action and started raising the necessary money and making other arrangements. I’m always amazed that making the decision to do something is often the most difficult part, and yet once that is done, everything starts to happen quite easily.
I’ve begun to make some prototypes, and in a couple of weeks time I will be trying to put cameras together in the intense heat and humidity of the Belize rainforest, hopefully to achieve some beautiful results. In honesty, at this point, I have no idea whether this project is going to work, it feels as though there are so many potential problems, but that is part of what makes it so exciting.
I will keep you updated with my progress, and of course the results of my efforts as they emerge. It would be great to get any advice, stories or feedback on the project or the work from anyone with similar experience, or simply an opinion.
