As an artist, I am a witness to my community.  My art is a visual record of what I see, showcasing the beauty in the everyday, touching on emotions, inter- and intra-personal relationships, referencing the past and the future. As a photographer, I want to have a good understanding of the historical aspects of the craft. It is through this understanding that photography is able to reach its fullest potential.  I create imagery with contemporary overtones, yet reference past traditions. I experiment with the photographic process, both in the creation and final presentation of the work. My practice also includes video, installation and happening elements, but the photographic image is always central to the work. I create environments where my audience can participate in the creative act, encouraging them to expand their experience. I want to see how far I can push the medium.  How far I can expand the idea of what a photograph can be, how it can be made, and what it can look like.

Why Pinhole?

I have always been interested in photography’s historical processes and classical foundations. There must be an understanding of where an art form began, how it has evolved over time, to carry it forward into the future. By playfully exploring the processes, using all the possibilities, one gains an understanding of the medium. The practice is “limitless, inexhaustible, without stepping outside the natural boundaries of the medium”(Paul Strand, “The Art Motive in Photography”, 1923, pg. 287) and only through experimentally creating imagery, can photography reach its fullest potential.

Pinhole photography is a rudimentary process, involving basic materials. It is also a slow and meticulous process, something that takes perseverance, patience, and practice to perfect.  The methods used are very ‘hands-on’, with the sense of getting ones fingers wet with the photons of light. The experimental successes are an epiphany, moments filled with great joy, full of surprise at what the photograph looks like, intriguing imagery that is pulled from the elements of a particular time and space to leave its mark and energies on the final unique object created.

~Laura Cofrin