Global Photographic Project of Solargraphy

This solargraph is a six-month exposure of Helsinki taken with a home-made pinhole camera from a balcony. In 2003 I wanted to shoot solargraphs with half a year exposure time . Solargraphy by Tarja Trygg.

Solargraphs have completely enchanted me, because in them, the world reveals things to us we would normally not be able to see.

The spark for making solargraphs came from Poland, at an international photography workshop, PROFILE' 02, where the theme was "solarigrafie". Solargraphy is not very well known in the world and I had not heard of such a method of photography before. The first time I saw a small photographic paper negative, which had a black streak on it, a mark left by the Sun, I did not understand the beauty of it. However, soon this method had a tight grip on me. An essential part of this method is the building of the cameras out of empty cans or tins. One of the most special things about this method is the fact that even if black and white photography paper is used as the light sensitive material, the outcome is a color picture.

The weather during half a year is seen in the image above.
The Sun´s slow path across the sky is beautifully captured by this unique image. The Sun´s altitude (it´s peak) is reached in midsummer on June 21st in the northern hemisphere. Every day the Sun leaves one line after one. The tracks of the moving Sun are visible and increase progressively from December to June. The missing tracks are due to the Sun beeing obscured on overcast days.

The Goal of the Project

Since May 2002 I have begun my experiments and I am doing a PhD research about Solargraphy in the change of analogy and digital photography.

The goal of this project is to collect solargraphs all over the wolrd and to build The World Map of Solargraphs. The Map will be ready in 2006.

Read more about the interview about my thoughts on the website of Pinhole Visions.

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~ The Art of Pinhole Photography ~