Photoblogs Magazine: There is a place on the blogsphere where time seems to stand still, and one enters a world of magical images from another age of the world. It is Wanda Scott's photoblog, Cariboo Images and Thoughts, home of many fascinating pinhole photographs and polaroid manipulations.
Dear Wanda, can you explain to us how these techniques work?

Wanda Scott: Oh, gosh, I feel almost overwhelmed when asked this question about pinhole photography...how does this technique work? My first reaction of course is a head full of calculation, values and technical equations. I then do a reality check, reminding myself that most people would be thoroughly bored with such detailed accounts, so I will proceed with my usually simple speech that I give to high school students. Pinhole photography is lensless photography, meaning that you are taking photographs without a lens. In its place is just a pin-hole; that's it, nothing more. As for the camera itself, you can use any container, as long as you can make it light tight, where no light may enter except through the pinhole. The film or light sensitive paper (this is the photographic paper that is used in darkrooms to print an image on) is then loaded into the camera container on the opposite wall from the pinhole, and it's then ready to use. Now this is a simplified version of what happens next. Light is bounced off of the image you have the camera pointed at and those light rays come blasting through the pinhole and burn the image onto the film or paper. Of course, the image will be burned in inverted and reversed, but that is easily fixed later. Depending on how strong the light from the sun is, and also the subject that is being photographed, will be part of the calculations in determining exposure times. Other factors are the pinhole size in relationship to the distance from film/paper to pinhole. But that is starting to get too technical, so lets leave that alone for now. The bottom line is, it's so simple, it really is magic.
My SX70 Polaroid manipulated images, is just a new technique for me (last year). As with everything else, I read an article in a magazine on this and decided to give it a try. The old SX70 Polaroid Land Cameras are no longer made, but are readily available through second hand camera stores etc. The film for these cameras is still available today, and is called Polaroid Time-Zero film. The wonderful characteristics of this film, is that the 'gel' part of the film will stay soft for quite a few hours. While the 'gel' is soft, you can apply pressure to it, using any blunt hard object. This pressure, and of course depending on how much pressure you use, will move the 'gel' around, creating a impressionistic look to the photograph. I have also found that, depending on when you start manipulating the image and how much pressure you apply, you can also change the colours of the image. Different heat temperatures of the film also factor into this process. It's fun, it's quick (compared to pinhole work), and I'm thoroughly addicted to it at the moment.

PM: A recurring theme of your photography is the landscape of rural Canada, where you live. Tell us about it and how living in close contact with nature affects your artistic creation.

WS: I have lived in a rural setting all my life. I remember the first time a landscape scene affected me, I was a child of 8 years and we had been out on a family drive to a new part of the area that I had never seen before. I remember looking out of the car window and being so overwhelmed by what I saw, I started to cry. (Thoroughly bewildering my parents of course.) I guess that's why I photograph landscapes mostly; it's what I am drawn to, and it continues to emotionally affect me even now. I also had a tremendous fascination with cameras at an early age; my first camera was at age 6. Great joy was not only having a camera, but in also dismantling it to see exactly how and why it worked. From there my interest evolved, with cameras, and light.

PM: Many of your pinhole photographs portray old towns looking like the set of western movies at the time of the gold rush. Do you possess a time machine?

WS: I wish I did. I would love to go back to the mid to late 1800's and experience that time in our history on the west coast of Canada. I am very fortunate, I live close to an area in central BC which has a reconstructed historic gold rush town called Barkerville. A lot of my pinhole images are from this township, and it seems very fitting for me to be using a pinhole format rather than digital to capture these historic structures. Somehow it all just fits in perfectly for me, as if time stands still when using a pinhole camera in these settings. I also live in a mainly ranching area, so I am still in a mildly 'wild west' atmosphere; things still a little rough around the edges but very fitting for my pinhole work.

PM: In a photoblogs world dominated by point-and-shoot cameras, and snapshots aiming to document the ephemeral nature of modern lives, your work seems to go in the opposite direction. Some of your exposures take hours to be recorded, and are the result of careful planning in calculating exposure times and framing your images. What are your motivations for choosing this highly technical medium?

WS: It was an evolvement of discovery for me. I became more drawn in with photography about 12 years ago, and set up a darkroom, concentrating mainly on black and white work and 35mm cameras. Then came some medium format work followed by a digital camera. After using a digital camera for about one year, I felt like I was losing touch with the whole aspect of what I had loved about photography, feeling light, reading light, calculating light. About this time, I had read an article on pinhole photography and thought I would give it a try. I will never forget the feeling when that first fuzzy blurred image immerged from a tiny cylinder container. I felt like I had just discovered photography for the first time.
How simple it was, and yet how scientific it was. It has been a wonderful journey these last few years, and I know there is more to learn and improve on. I will never be able to achieve a perfectly toned image, but with every camera I build, I am getting closer to the mark. I think this is one of the attractions for me with pinhole work. I will never be able to perfect it, therefore constantly learning from each image I take.

PM: The President of a well-known University has recently made very unfortunate remarks hinting that women may be less suited than men to do scientific and technical professions. As a woman dedicated to a form of art which at the same time requires a deep technical understanding, could you comment on the presence of biases in our society that might quell the interest of young girls toward technical subjects?

WS: It's very unfortunate that there are still biased ideas like this in our academic fields today. For myself I can honestly see no difference in gender when it comes to learning the sciences and technology aspects. As a society, are we raising boys and girls differently? Are we subconsciously gearing girls away from sciences? I remember when my two boys were small (back in the mid 70's) and the big discussion back then was to introduce boys to dolls, so that they would get the natural role playing of nurturers as little girls seems to naturally do. So of course, out came some dolls, clothes, doll houses, etc. My boys dismantled the dolls, to see how their arms, legs and head were attached, they wanted to see what made their eye's work, so that was explored and the pulleys were unhinged. As far as the clothes went, they never did get used on the dolls (parts). Of course, I can remember doing the very same thing myself when I was a child. I had a thirst (and still do) to find out how everything worked, why it worked and what would happen if I tried doing this or that with it. I do think we are born with certain aptitudes. But yet, I think these aptitudes certainly can be swayed, dampenedd or encouraged by our peers and society in general. Inherent inferiority, social inequalities, and institutional bias, to name just a few, are the roadblocks females encounter in the science and technology fields. This, I believe, is true. I strongly believe the very most important aspect of a child's educational platform comes from the support of their home life. If it's strong, supportive and unbiased, the child (no matter what gender) will achieve whatever they wish to strive for.

posted by Massimo