WoodyCam #1

WoodyCam #1 represents for me the return to the physical origins of the image, the true magic of photography.

During a trip to Tuscany, together with my friend Luca, we spent time experimenting with shots using a pinhole camera. The operation of this ancient device is based on the optical principle of the camera obscura: a light-sealed box featuring only a tiny pinhole on one wall and a photosensitive plane on the opposite wall.

Sunlight penetrates through the tiny hole and projects the inverted external image onto the back of the box, impressing it on photosensitive material without the aid of any glass lens or objective. The extraordinary characteristic of this process is that the absence of lenses eliminates the need to focus, guaranteeing a virtually infinite depth of field.

Building such a camera requires mathematical precision: the hole size must be calibrated accurately to calculate correct exposure and long shutter speeds. Combining this ancient optical technique with my passion for woodworking and manual crafting was a completely natural step.

Thus was born WoodyCam #1, my first self-built wooden pinhole camera. Featuring a very short internal focal distance (flange distance), it offers a strongly wide-angle photographic perspective with fascinating and dreamy distortions at the image edges.

As sensitive material inside the camera, I chose matte Harman Direct Positive photographic paper. This special silver salt emulsion allows obtaining a direct positive image as a unique, non-reproducible copy, without passing through a negative development phase. The printed paper is then chemically processed and developed by hand in traditional developer and fixer baths in the darkroom, giving every shot the unique feel of an artisanal piece of art.

This journey into slow, meditative photography continues with the evolution of the project described in WoodyCam #2 and aligns with my philosophy of time expressed in Elogio alla lentezza.

Roberto Lacava