Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day 2019

Annual pinhole photography event. 

All photographs created with a 3D printed camera, on April 28, 2019.

All photos by Laura Cofrin, except the first, which was shot by Gavin Brent.

Ilford FP4+, and Kodak Ektar (expired) films.

Blurry Pictures: Lens Edition. Full moon, June 2, 2015

Experimental photographs made during the full moon by Laura Cofrin. 

Camera as paintbrush.

Sage and Sky

Sage and Sky, pinhole photograph by Laura Brent, 2013

Summer is a time for traveling, and long road trips are the perfect opportunity for uninterrupted thoughts. The southwest is the perfect location for these wanderings, with its brilliant light and expansive air. I feel refreshed and energized having recently returned from those magic desert places. The ideas, mulled over with the miles, have incubated and are ready to come forth through new works.

Road Trip, pinhole photograph by Laura Brent, 2013

 The journey is long, an unending path. The quest - for beauty - in the eye, the mind, and the heart.

American Beauty, pinhole photograph by Laura Brent, 2013

 "To calculate on the unforeseen is perhaps exactly the paradoxical operation that life most requires of us."
"...one does not get lost but loses oneself, with the implication that it is a conscious choice, a chosen surrender, a psychic state achievable through geography"
          - Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost

Tommy Knocker Trail, pinhole photograph by Laura Brent, 2013

Why wander? Will the destination offer up a respite? What discovery will come from an aimless ambling? Looking for the happy happenstance, the quirky coincidence, the surprise prize. What spirits are leading the way? How well do you know them? If you are aware, you can almost see them. And remember, at the end, we all become the dirt of the roads, forever left in the rear-view mirror of life. I plan on leaving something behind.

...a reflective look back.

American Beauty

Valhall Arts has come a long way in its last 5 years of existence. Like a toddler, there were the awkward moments, and mistakes, but overall it has been a fun and successful run. The growth of my photography has only begun, and I feel like a child exploring, as I make my way forward in my practice.

With the probability that the current situation is coming to an end, this month I offer a Retrospective, opening Friday May 3rd, 6-9 pm. The exhibit offers a look back at past exhibitions, and the opportunity to see the progression of my work. The gallery began with straighforward photographic exhibitions, showing the work I did while talking classes at Front Range Community College. I had good luck with the fact that the local educational institution was home to some world class instructors, and my passion for photography and the arts was ignited.

Even as I opened my first few shows, I knew I would grow tired of the standard presentation of photographs presented under glass with white mats in black or white frames. From the very beginning I was more interested in experimenting with the medium, expanding the ideas of what a photograph could look like and how a photography exhibition could be presented. I was interested in engaging my audience, really inspiring them to interact with the art works, bringing in relational aesthetics, and other contemporary practices into my projects.

Come see the transitions and changes that occurred over the five plus years at Valhall Arts.
More details and images can be found on my website, http://www.valhallarts.com.

Thanks! Hope to see you at the receptions May 3rd and June 7th,
                                                                                         ~Laura Brent

"After Niepce"

This image was created by Laura Brent, using color film and a pinhole in a body cap on a Nikon FE2. The imagery is evocative of Joseph Nicephore's (Niepce) 1826 "View from the Window at Le Gras", the first photograph ever made. It is held at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, in Austin.

In this day and age of digital cameras, and high-tech methods of gathering and printing photographs, Brent enjoys getting her fingers wet with the photons, experimenting with the pinhole medium. The image was captured in Santa Fe, NM, and the film was developed in Durango, CO at Pennington Photo, a camera store that has been in operation since 1906, and plans to close at the end of April. This work is in homage to the historic makers and methods, and a gesture that these vintage processes are still a valid art form.