Pinhole, a Retrospective

Yesterday was the annual local Burning Man event called Decom. This is a great opportunity for non-burners to get to know Burning Man and an amazing homecoming for all NYC Burners to reconnect and relive all the fun that they had in September. This year’s Decom was held at the Queens Museum of Art and our contribution was to compile a retrospective of our Pinhole photographs. As you may know, 2007 was our last year doing the Pinhole photography project. Although Pinhole will always hold a special place in our hearts, after 9 years the original founders of the camp as well as our close friends had quite simply gotten burned out.

This retrospective was a great way to bid a fond farewell to all of the lives that Pinhole has touched over the years. It was really nice to have people stop by and say how much they loved Pinhole, that they had a special print, etc.

One of the best parts for me was to be able to pass the torch onto someone else. Rather than have all of our camp gear and equipment end up in a landfill, I went on a personal quest to find new home for Pinhole. I’m pleased to say that next year Pinhole will still be in operation on the playa under new management. The new owner, JetLag, and his camp of Perpetual Virgins (a virgin is a first time participant at Burning Man) will be operating Pinhole as a way of getting the newbies oriented with the art and experience of Burning Man. JetLag even flew from Reno for this weekend’s event as was so excited to see our gallery.

It’s really a win-win for all, they’ve inherited a turn-key art project and while we hope not to work on Pinhole 24/7 next year, we’ll still be able to go over and help the “Virgins” learn about photography and a take a shot or two for old time’s sake.

You can read more about Pinhole photography and what we do in this online journal about lensless photography.