As a recipient of the National Science Foundation's, Antarctic Artist and Writers program, in 2013, I spent 8 weeks at Palmer station. The smallest of three US year-round facilities, Palmer station is located on the Western Antarctic peninsula. Able to house 49 souls, much of the work that takes place at Palmer is related to long-term ecological studies. Scientist gather data on everything from air quality to phytoplankton, birds to whales and everything in between. While at Palmer I shadowed teams of scientists and gathered source material to inform my work.
l o n g e x p o s u r e p i n h o l e p h o t o g r a p h y
While in residence at Palmer station I took long exposure pinhole photographs to capture the long days of the austral summer. Long exposure pinhole cameras are simple light tight containers with literally a pinhole serving as the open aperture. They are set either in or outdoors and left for several days or weeks and then 'developed' by scanning. Because of the long exposure, the resulting photographs capture only the movement of the sun though the sky. A measurement of time by light. A poem rather than a definition.
Janet Neuhauser, Seattle based artist and creator of the Pinhole Project, generously taught me the technique of this type of pinhole photography.
