There are camera obscura all around the world, but for some reason there isn’t one in Birmingham, UK. We want to fix that.
We are Jenny Duffin and Pete Ashton, two photographer/artists based in Birmingham. We build camera obscuras because they're cool and interesting and can be used for neat things. We take our cameras out around Birmingham and the West Midlands to show they to people and they tend to like them a lot.
After a few years of high activity this project has been on semi-hiatus since 2017 while we regroup and concentrate on other work. The camera is in full working order and occasionally lent to other artists to play with, while we are happy to consult with obscura-related projects, such as the Dead Shrines. All activities will be documented here in time.
We have a long term plan to establish a permanent camera obscura of some kind in Birmingham. It might be the traditional “lens on a roof”, it might be something radically different. But it will be awesome and it will be here.
On the way to that goal we plan to do lots of cool stuff with the camera obscura idea, building cameras large and small, running workshops, converting buildings, exploring the science and the art and generally bending light to our will. We’d like you to join us. Sign up for our mailing list so we can keep in touch.
And while we’re building stuff in Birmingham we’ll also be exploring the world, online and on foot, to find out what inspirational camera obscura are out there and how we can learn from them. Check out our map and follow our journey on the blog!
