B E T H A N Y d e F O R E S T
I was born in Stoneham Mass USA. We moved to holland when I was 4 years old. When I was 18 I moved to Amsterdam and started my study at the accademy. The last year of my study I discovered Pinhole and from then on never stoped.
In my work I want to create a dreamy, fairy-tale like world. The settings are made of every day materials wich have a totaly different meaning in the "new world".
By using a pinhole camera we can crawl in to this world and pretend we take part of it.
During art school (Utrecht , the Netherlands) one of my main activities was creating settings, which I then photographed. My objective was to create a “realistic” imaginary world, in which one can supposedly wander around.
With an ordinary camera the images remained too distant... But with the pinhole camera I was able to capture this feeling.
My inspiration stems from objects I may find or materials that appeal to me. Often my ideas contain elements from fairy-tales. The story is neither conventional nor predictable though, the images can be interpreted in many ways.
Being a pinhole photographer my view of the world is quite deformed. My everyday surroundings are looked at with a pinhole eye. Sugar cubes are like bricks and chicken-feet are tree-trunks.
About the models
My pictures radiate a fairy-tale atmosphere. A close-up perspective causes an unusual reality to emerge. Because of this, lifeless materials come to life while living matter is taken out of its ordinary context and is transformed into an almost static still life.
I primarily work with ordinary materials. I use candle wax to build an ice palace and colored candy for a colorful dollhouse, while thousands of sugar cubes are used to construct the Frog king’s castle. Metal, stained glass, cotton balls, asparagus and raspberries, leaves and twigs: all are hardly recognizable in these strange worlds. However, the inhabitants feel right at home. King Frog, the duck, butterflies and bumblebees, fish, seahorses, shrimp and even the chicken leg all tell their own story. Seemingly appropriate in their fairytale surroundings.
To create the illusion of space, I use mirrors. This complicates matters, for it causes the camera to appear in the picture. The camera therefore is a part of the setting and is fit to blend in with the surroundings. Unrecognizable for the viewer, but essential for the image.
About pinhole
The models/ settings, often not larger than a reasonably sized box, are captured by means of pinhole photography.
To create a pinhole picture, you need a pinhole camera. This is a camera without a lens; the light reaches the film through a tiny hole (the size of a pinpoint). Many objects can be turned into cameras; boxes and cans are extremely useful.
My first camera was a matchbox, which I used to create black and white images of a very small model (the glass house).
This is one of my favorite aspects of pinhole: building a camera of which the shape and measurements correspond with that what you need. Nowadays I use modified cameras, because of the comfort of a film transport-mechanism. I rid these cameras of lens and shutter and insert an ordinary piece of foil with a small hole in its center.
Another unusual aspect is that no button is pressed, just remove the cap and let the light do its work. The aperture times are much longer than with ordinary photography. A picture taken from within a model takes ten minutes on average. Outside in bright daylight apertures are shorter, but still several seconds.
A perfect pinhole is essential for a sharp image; round without any irregularities. I make mine by sticking a needle through a piece of copper foil; this hole is then checked under a microscope and smoothed with sandpaper.
Pinhole photography can create surprising results; it’s a technique with endless possibilities of experimentation.
See more on my Website: www.pinhole.nl
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