10 Countries

  • Jardin des Plantes, Paris, 1998

  • Gargoyle, Notre Dame, Paris, 1998

La Porte

  • La Porte, PH1 - Stairs, 2012

  • La Porte, R1 Lady Broom, 2012

  • La Porte, R1 Broken wall, 2012

Artist Statement

I have used lots of different pinhole cameras in the past. I also have used medium format film cameras like the Holga and the Rolleiflex. They make square format photos - that have some nostalgic feel because of the format. I still print my own photographs using traditional darkroom techniques.

For some of these new images I used the Rolleiflex camera as it allowed me to pick up on some of the amazing details on the walls. There's this old graffiti on the walls- drawing of a woman from the 1940's 50's is featured in a couple of the photos.  Same time period as the camera. The pinhole camera picks up less detail. Very long exposures 10-15 minutes long. Capture time and the essence of the place.

Recent Pinhole Photographs

  • Canal Du Midi, Narouze, France, 2010

  • Arched Bridge, Corbieres, France, 2011

  • Allee, Narouze, France, 2011

  • Fenetre, Galerie, Chenonceau, 2011

  • Studio with Still Life & Chair, Italy, 2010

  • White Chair, Montecastello di Vibio, 2008

  • White Room (with ghost), Montecastello di Vibio, 2008

  • Pantheon Interior, Rome, 2008

  • Red Shirt, San Marco, Venice, 2007

  • Venice, Gondola, with Red Cushions, 2007

  • Blue Chambre, 2007

  • Striped Pole, Venice, 2007

  • Red Door, 2007

  • La fenetre de la ferme, 2007

  • Blue Studio (with Sky Light), 2007

  • Chateau de Chenonceau, Galerie, 2007

  • Blue Studio, AP, 2007

  • Paris Rain, 2006

  • Rapallo, Italy, 2005

  • La Galerie de Léran, Ariège, France (Ladder), 2005

  • Chateau de Gudanes (Horse), France, 2004

  • Versailles, Window, 2003

  • Studio with Easel, 2001

  • Reconstructed Landscape (Marion Lake), 2001

Artist Statement

Over the past couple years I've had the opportunity to explore pinhole photograph in the same environment where Leonardo da Vinci once experimented with similar image projection techniques. I've visited 16th century sites where light still pours in to large cavernous cathedrals through a tiny hole in the ceiling, projecting the image of the sun itself on the floor. Though initially designed to tell time, this sun projection helped changed earlier beliefs that the earth was the centre of the Universe. 

As Derek Walcott puts in his poem, In Italy, this is "light older than wine" whose "shadows are the dial of time."

Pinhole projections and the 'camera obscura' - Italian for dark room - changed Western thinking of the Earth's relationship into the sun, and changed the face of art in the Renaissance.  I can't help contemplating all of this history when I'm using this simple but sublime pinhole device to photograph in Italy - whether the subjects are temples with their light-gathering apetures, or "hill towns with their stamp-sized squares" and "the roofs and beached of the ligurian coast".  (Derek Walcott, In Italy, The New Yorker Magazine, April 21st, 2008)

Dianne Bos is well known for her museum exhibitions that feature handmade cameras, walk-in light box installations, and sound pieces. These tools and devices formulate and extend her fascination with journeying, time, and light-forms. Over the past 25 years Dianne Bos has continually explored motifs such as galaxies and constellations, European interiors with light portals (such as windows or doors) and figures presented as light apparitions.