The Pinhole Process 

A pinhole camera has no lens. Light simply passes through a tiny hole.

There is no viewfinder so the composition must be approximated. Exposure times are lengthy: anywhere from several seconds to several hours. These long exposures play with preconceived notions of photography. Rather than a split second capture, passages of time are crammed onto a single frame.

Think cinematic crunch: 24 seconds on a frame instead of 24 frames per second. The flow of any movement doesn't just freeze but condenses on that lone frame.

The resulting images can evoke narratives of time, memory and mood.


The Photographer 

Cher MacNeill was born in Montreal, Quebec. She studied photography, Art and Art History at the University of Toronto and Sheridan College. She also studied under pinhole photographer Dianne Bos and large format narrative portrait photographer Greg Miller. 

MacNeill has exhibited locally and abroad including shows at Nuit Blanche, Toronto (2007), Galerie MFK, Berlin, Germany (2007) and at Museo Comunale d'Arte Moderna, Senigallia, Italy (2011). She has led several pinhole photography workshops including with the Luminato: Youth Photography Project (2014) where she oversaw the conversion of an automobile into a pinhole camera. 

MacNeill’s past life in film editing combined with an abiding passion for the natural environment continues to inform her pinhole photo-taking. She resides in Toronto.


Using Format