In June of 2014, the artists at the Sunny Arms, the building where I live and work in Seattle, started a long term pinhole photography project exposing cameras from our windows for 90 day periods. The only parameter was the cameras had to be pointing out at the view from our various studios. The description of this first season can be found in an earlier blog post, http://www.janetneuhauser.com/out-there-long-exposure-pinhole-photography-from-the-sunny-arms/. I am happy to report as an update, that those images from Season 1, as I like to call it, have been chosen for a public art project to be displayed on a King County bus shelter. This link shows the 2015 winners and their images: http://pcnw.org/connect/2015-city-panorama-photo-mural-project/ . Completion of the bus shelter is expected in the spring of 2016.
Meanwhile, the artists here at the Sunny Arms have continued to expose cameras for two more seasons. I did not know whether there would be any difference between the photographs from different seasons and I was grateful for the commitment of the residents to tend their cameras. We have been gathering time and light, and I am happy to report that there indeed a big difference in the images. Most of us have put cameras close to the same vantage point for each season. All the paper and the cameras have been the same.
This fall, for the Sunny Arms Open Studios, I printed 20 diptychs of the first two seasons. The third season is coming down now and I give you a few of the the paired images. In March we will start the last of the four seasons: the Spring Equinox to the Summer Solstice. I love this project for it’s slowness and the quiet way the entire building is working together to make a document. Cameras fall down and get put back up; tape slides down the windows, trucks rattle the tins loose. The trees gain leaves and drop them, the sun trails move across the sky. Two years will have passed when we are done with all four seasons instead of one year, which would have seemed rushed. We skipped seasons for a number of reasons: the cameras did not come down all at once and I thought it was important that everyone see the image they made before they made the next one. It will be interesting to see if this delay made a difference.
Here are a few preliminary results:
Above: Looking north from the Snoqualmie Street first floor entrance, Fall to Winter. Right: Winter to Spring, same view. Both images made by Janet Neuhauser
Above: From the third floor (left), looking northeast, Winter to Spring. From the fifth floor,(right), looking northeast, Spring to Summer. These were made by Bang Jing Sun (left) and Janel Kolby (right).
Above: First floor main entrance, left Summer to Fall, Right: Winter to Spring. Both images made by Janet Neuhauser
Above: This one from Kevin Wilson and Laurie LeClair, first floor looking east. Left, Winter to Spring. Right: Fall to Winter.
There are plenty of others. I am just now in the process of sorting them out. We will begin the final season this Spring. Then after another 90 days, I will report back.
Featured image is from the first floor main entrance with a two hole pinhole camera, Fall to Winter.
