jpg Children at IMECE learned about one of the oldest photography techniques, the pinhole
A women’s rights charity is using an innovative method to teach the art of photography to children.
IMECE, known as one as longest-lasting charities in the Turkish-speaking communities, has been using cardboard boxes with the children, who are aged between 6 and 14 and come from migrant and asylum seeking-families.
Photographer Şebnem Uğural says her aim is to teach photography to children using the pinhole technique, which does not involve using any device at all.
“Life in itself is a photograph,” she told Londra Gazete. “It is great that the children are taking part regularly in this course. They completed the six week course with great enthusiasm and found it interesting, because they were able to take photographs simply by opening up a small hole in a box.
“I also want to thank the children’s families, who ensured the children kept coming despite the many problems they encounter.”
Emel Yüksel (left) and Şebnem Uğural gave each of the students a certificate at the end of the course
Speaking for IMECE, Emel Yüksel said they were delighted to support the project and believed it would stimulate the children’s creativity. She also helped to present certificates to the children to mark the end of the course.
A pinhole camera is a simple camera without a lens and with a single small pinhole, effectively a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through this single point and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box.
It is completely dark on all the other sides of the box including the side where the point is created. This part is usually painted black, but black boxes are also used for this purpose. There is also a thin screen which looks like a projector sheet, and is put in between the dark side adjacent to the pinhole.
