20 Amazing Photos You Won't Believe Were Taken With Pinhole Cameras

Image via Complex Original

Photographer: Jan Dunning

Jan Dunning is a onetime model who journeyed from in front of the camera to behind it. With her chosen instrument of the lens-less camera, she describes her work as exploiting "the ambiguous and transformational stance of the pinhole photograph." Dunning takes advantage of the imprecise nature of the pinhole camera to create images of eerie creatures that fuse humans and animals for her series "Metamorphosis."

Photographer: Abelardo Morell

Abelardo Morell travels the world transforming each of his temporary abodes into a large-scale pinhole camera. Totally sealing his room off from any light, the image from outside his window is reflected on the adjacent wall. For Morell, the camera obscura allows him to capture "the weird and yet natural marriage of the inside and outside."

Photographer: Gregor Servais

Gregor Servais' seascapes are inspired by the transient nature of the world that surrounds him. Servais' pinhole photography captures the fleeting moment when all variables align to create the perfect picture.

Photographer: Eric Renner

Eric Renner uses figurines to create controversial scenes in his collection of images "On Deaf Ears," done in collaboration with Nancy Spencer. Many of the assemblages use household names and commonplace objects to touch on topics such as human rights, sexuality, and stereotypes.

Photographer: Sheila Bocchine

In her series of photographs taken while in China, Bocchine uses a longer exposure time to coalesce static objects with and the frantic atmosphere that surrounds her. In doing so, she has produced images teeming with vitality.

Photographer: Zeb Andrews

Zeb Andrews' photography captures the tranquil and softer side of nature. With the extended exposure time necessary for capturing scenes with a pinhole camera, rushing waters appear gentle and ethereal.

Photographer: Robyn Stacey

Robyn Stacey uses the camera obscura to contrast austere hotel rooms with views of busting cityscapes. Her work gives viewers a peek in to the complicated yet mysterious lives of the rooms' inhabitants. With these images, she constructs her own portrait of contemporary life through fragmented glimpses into the lives of her subjects.

Photographer: Scott McMahon

Scott McMahon combines the chemical process and materials used to produce tintype photographs along with a pinhole camera to create a final product that is tarnished with beautiful decay.

Photographer: Mabel Odessey

With pinhole camera in tow, Mable Odyssey recreates scenes from Lewis Carroll's Alice and Wonderland. Using unsettling figurines, she imparts a bit movement that breathes life into the composition.

Photographer: Thomas Hudson Reeves

Pinhole cameras could possibly be the most malleable and versatile tools in photography. Ask photographer Thomas Hudson Reeves, who creates his own pinhole cameras out of colored photo-paper. Once flooded with the light, the little cameras create wide-angled images.

Photographer: Marja Pirilä

Marja Pirilä creates ethereal worlds within the confines of a single room. For Pirilä, the camera obscura acts as a way to "explore our environments and to allure subconscious feelings into daylight."

Photographer: Fatimelou Nilufar

Shooting in the white-hot heat of the Western Sahara, Fatimelou Nilufar uses the pinhole camera's ability to produce images that mimic desert mirages. 

Photographer: Bethany de Forest

Bethany de Forest lets her imagination run wild in her dioramas of a whimsical utopia. With the help of mirrors along with the pinhole camera's talent of creating an illusion of space, these enchanting models become quite convincing.

Photographer: Pascale Peyret

In her series "Green Memories," Pascale Peyret captures the lives of miniature figures that inhabit a microchip metropolis. With the assistance of her pinhole camera, she creates clever storylines within model cities.

Photographer: Catie Soldan

Catie Soldan uses her pinhole camera to create works that appear to delicately deteriorate before your eyes. With the help of some variations in the chemical process and her own manipulations, these eroded photographs evoke a feeling of melancholy.

Photographer: Ben Conrad

Adorned in 135 pinhole cameras, Ben Conrad envelops himself in his beloved tool. Using a large pinhole camera and a little assistance, he was able to capture this self-portrait using a large tarp as the makeshift shutter.

Photographer: Antoine Levi and Romain Alary

Cousins Romain Alary and Antoine Levi's joint project "Stenop.es: A Pinhole Movie Project" coalesces the seclusion of a private room with the impersonal nature of the outside world.

Photographer: Scott Speck

Pinhole cameras have the ability to create images with an infinite depth of field, hence photos that appear to go on forever. Scott Peck takes advantage of this double-edged sword to create vertigo-inspiring photographs.

Photographer: Justin Quinnell

Pinhole cameras can be made out of almost anything: shoeboxes, soda cans, and in Justin Quinnell's case, his mouth. By placing light sensitive film at the rear of his oral cavity Quinnell's "Mouthpiece" series takes on an odd vantage point, capturing his life from the perspective of his mouth. That includes munching on a carrot and brushing his teeth...with a dead spider.

Photographer: Steve Irvine

Never before has a parsnip appeared so enigmatic. Steve Irvine's extended exposure time aided in creating a highly detailed still-life that captures the parsnip's inner essence.