If funded successfully, the 360° Pinhole Camper Van project will be traversing Europe to take pinhole photos and videos.
While some of us are dreaming of a nomadic life aboard a converted camper van, London-based freelance photographer Santino Pani wants to transform his van into a giant 360° Pinhole Camper Van. If he meets his £15,000 funding goal on Indiegogo, he plans to take it across Europe and document what he already perceives to be an extraordinary photographic experience.
Pani was inspired by Abelardo Morell’s camera obscura project, wherein he converted rooms all over the world into massive camera obscuras and captured the resulting images using a large format camera. He will be doing more or less the same as Morell’s in that it will feature different locations, but the idea that the scenes he’ll capture will be essentially be moving pictures — on the road or otherwise — is actually quite interesting.
“Traveling on a camper, with a pinhole camera inside, is like watching the outside world from inside the van. At night the van is completely dark, and only occasional lights are shown, creating an atmosphere of night skylight. On early morning, the sunrise is announced as the van starts to brighten by the light entering through the pinhole, and the outside world start to show inside.”
Apart from the reconstruction need to make the van itself a home on-the-go for himself, Pani will also need the funding to get himself some photo and video equipment for carrying out the project. “A Nikon D800 or similar (used), a Mamiya RB67 for Polaroids, a GoPro, and a professional camcorder (I am oriented into a JVC GY-HM650-PRO or similar), and several rolls of sensitive photographic paper of the size 1x25m,” he outlined.
During the trip, he intends to produce a series of print rolls of 1×3 m, and 50×70 cm prints that he will exhibit in a gallery. He also wants to make a photo book which will be available at the exhibit or mailed to project supporters.
Pani is still a very long way to getting his project fully funded. If this is something you’d like to help make happen, head to the Indiegogo campaign to find out more about the project and pledge your support while there’s still time.
Screenshot image from the video by Santino Pani