Pinhole Cliche

So what is a cliche pinhole image and am I "guilty" of making them? With pinhole, there is often blurred movement, black around the edges, distortion, real yet somehow soft, a view of another dimension. Multiple pinholes and overlapping images, worms eye view, and curved film planes. Then there is the advantageous use of infinite depth of field, or the trick of having a background that moves, thus throwing it out of focus. Some artists, (Eric Renner comes to mind) use the pinhole camera as a tool for creating conceptual art. Are these "devices" that create cliche pinhole photographs or are they creating "classic pinhole imagery", as a pinhole photographer friend suggested?

A good cliche image should still be a good image. Maybe even a great rendering of a cliche is possible. As photographer, teacher, and sometimes critic Larry Bullis said to me, "things become cliche because there is truth in them."

It is very difficult to create something that is really new. Tradition says, "there are no new truths," but concerned photographers and artists try anyway. Perhaps it is giri, and part of our duty. But if the photograph (or other artwork) also comes from the heart as ninjo, I believe it will succeed as "art".

Photos and Text Copyright Edward Levinson 2002

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