Meg Turner

Printmaker and photographer working out of New Orleans, Louisiana. Her practice spans prints, photography, and installation projects that respond to the landscape and the community she is part of.

In addition to her own work and contract printing, Meg serves as the master printer for local photogravure and wet collodion artist Josephine Sacabo. She founded the New Orleans Community Printshop and has since stepped back from a leadership position to focus on her studio practice.

She shoots primarily with a 4×5 Crown Graphic press camera, working in film and wet collodion.

A circular portrait embedded in a dramatic magenta-to-indigo gradient field, with deep black edges framing the composition

Pinhole photography without a kit

A pinhole camera reduces photography to a direct exchange: light passes through a tiny opening and leaves a mark on photosensitive paper or film. There is no lens to clean, no shutter to repair and no need for a dedicated pinhole set. What remains is aperture, darkness, time and a willingness to accept an image that cannot be focused in the usual way.

That directness suits my practice as a New Orleans-based printmaker and photographer. I work with wet collodion, traditional darkroom processes and installation, and the pinhole camera carries that patient material thinking into a small object. A tin, a needle and a scrap of film become instruments for studying distance, weather and how little light a scene needs.

For photographers in Australia, the project can begin close to home. Op shops stock household tins and craft materials, while specialist camera stores and independent labs in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane supply film, chemistry or second-hand equipment. A handmade camera suits an unhurried photowalk around Sydney’s Centennial Park, Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens or Brisbane’s South Bank without turning a casual outing into a gear expedition.

The method rewards attention rather than precision. Exposure changes with the weather, the colour of the walls and the size of the hole; people crossing the frame become pale interruptions instead of frozen subjects. The following guide covers building, loading, exposing and finishing a camera. Treat every number as a test rather than law, because the character of your materials is part of the photograph.

How a tiny opening forms an image

Inside the chamber, the pinhole is the only route for light to reach the recording surface. Bright areas deliver more exposure than dark areas, creating an inverted image. Its edges are shaped by a tiny opening rather than a curved lens, so scale and distance become more noticeable than razor-sharp detail.

A very small hole gives cleaner edges but demands a long exposure. As light passes through it, diffraction softens the image and creates a characteristic glow around highlights. A larger opening admits more light and records movement more readily, but its outline and any roughness become more obvious.

The camera cannot isolate a single plane in the way a lens can. Distant landscapes tend to hold their shape, while nearby objects blur more strongly. That limitation can feel awkward, yet it also gives the photograph a quiet, suspended quality, especially when clouds, leaves or water move during the exposure.

Choose a simple camera body

For a first attempt, choose an opaque box roughly 70–90 millimetres wide and 50–70 millimetres deep, with room to hold 35mm film flat at the back. A small food tin works well. A sturdy cardboard mailing tube is another option, although every seam needs sealing. Avoid clear containers and very shallow sweet tins, which offer little space between the hole and film.

A tin gives a stable chamber, while cardboard is easy to cut and rework. An old film canister can produce a tiny image, but its narrow shape makes film placement awkward. Keep the camera simple: one opening, one recording surface and enough darkness for stray light to reveal every flaw.

Source containers from an Australian op shop or your kitchen, then buy consumables at a hardware shop. Keep the camera and film away from hot cars and direct summer sun, since heat and ultraviolet exposure damage fresh coatings.

Build a light-tight chamber

Before cutting, plan how the film or paper will sit opposite the opening. Leave enough room to adapt the body, and test the fit in daylight before loading in full darkness.

Assemble the body with:

Compare these opening sizes:

Push the needle through spare foil held on a folded surface, then attach it to the front. Do not bore rigid metal; burrs and torn edges scatter light. Cover the interior with matte black paint or black card, leaving no reflective patches, and tape seams generously. Open tins have sharp edges, so use gloves and cut away from your body.

Load the recording surface

Work in a bathroom at night, a walk-in wardrobe or inside a large opaque bag. For 35mm film, unspool several frames, lay the strip flat against the rear wall and secure its ends with low-tack tape. The shiny emulsion side must face the pinhole.

Mask the film with black card and a 24 by 36 millimetre window. Because the camera has no ground glass, frame the image with a larger temporary opening, trace its projected edges on scrap paper, then restore the small hole. Test films may hold overlapping views, which you can crop later.

Photographic paper is a simpler alternative. Place it emulsion-side toward the opening and tape the edges; direct exposure produces a positive rather than a negative. Keep the back covered until exposure, never touch the emulsion with bare fingers, and finish loading before moving into sunlight.

Find a workable exposure

Mount the camera on a tripod or wall. Place important subjects several metres away, where limited depth of field is less noticeable. Bracket the exposure rather than trusting one estimate: a 0.20 millimetre hole in bright Australian sun may begin around 5 to 20 seconds at ISO 100, while heavy cloud can require minutes.

Film meters and phone apps are poor guides, and long exposures suffer reciprocity failure, meaning film records less light than standard calculations predict. Test at 5, 15, 30 and 60 seconds in bright conditions, then try two- and four-minute exposures in shade. Increase times for a smaller hole and make several exposures so one usable negative survives a mistake.

Weather makes the Australian context visible. Melbourne’s changeable cloud can turn one minute into several, while strong sun in Sydney or Perth needs less time. Brisbane’s humidity and Darwin’s tropical light bring further changes. From December to February, seek shade and keep film cool, since ultraviolet exposure and heat affect the emulsion.

Develop and print with patience

Develop a test roll using the manufacturer’s guidance, even if many frames are nearly blank. If negatives are thin but hold detail, a one-stop push may help; pushing also increases grain and contrast. A local film lab can process the roll, or you can use a small tank and chemistry from an Australian camera shop.

Scan or print the negatives before changing the camera. A flat-bed scanner can reveal detail that looks weak on screen, while a contact print shows the full series quickly. Soft edges and luminous highlights often need a restrained print, and slight dodging or burning can guide the eye without making every region equally dark.

For photographic paper, develop and fix it according to the instructions, then scan the positive or display it. In my wet collodion and darkroom work, that restrained approach is familiar: accept the veil, scattered light and imperfections as evidence of how the picture was made.

Make the camera your own

Once the camera produces a recognisable image, write the aperture and exposure time on its base. A second body with a slightly wider hole creates a useful comparison. Photograph the same corner, tree or station entrance at different times, then arrange the results as a sequence rather than judging them as single “correct” pictures.

The camera can become part of a larger artwork. Use a series to map changing light on a verandah, project an image onto a wall, or combine pinhole negatives with prints and installations. Community printshop sessions suit shared testing and chemistry, while a local photowalk can show how much a box and tiny opening can see.

Make one camera this week, load it with a short length of film and complete a four-exposure test before buying anything else. If you already make photographs and want those negatives printed, contact Meg about contract printing, exhibition editions or community printshop involvement. The first frame may be rough; the next may reveal a visual language you could not have planned with a lens.