Oct 10, 2016 | Blog
Over two years ago, the artists at the Sunny Arms, the building where I live and work, agreed to expose pinhole cameras out their windows for 90 days, from the Summer Solstice to the Fall Equinox.  The results were so spectacular that everyone agreed to expose cameras until we had covered each season.  The project came  to be called, Out There:  Pinhole Images from the Sunny Arms Artists.  Over the course of the next two years (the time it took us to expose all four seasons), over 100 images were made from our windows.  The residents changed, but the pinhole cameras continued to be exposed.  You can see an update on this project in this blog,  https://www.janetneuhauser.com/out-there-an-update/ that was published in 2015.
When I heard about the public art project called City Panorama, I was inspired to submit the first season of Out There to it.  Sponsored by Photographic Center Northwest, King County Metro and 4Culture, the project has placed hundreds of murals in the last six years on bus shelters throughout King County.  I am pleased to announce that the Sunny Arms first season of Out There has been placed on a bus shelter on Beacon Avenue South and South Holly Street, just up Beacon Hill from our building.  A great big thanks to all three organizations who have sponsored this wonderful project.  A great way to make our bus shelters more inviting and show off the photography of so many people throughout King County.
On the Photographic Center NW website (pcnw.org) a description of the project is as follows:
The City Panorama Project began in 2010 when King County Metro, WA partnered with PCNW to expand the public art scene in Seattle and other cities in King County. As a way to incorporate art into everyday life, to beautify Seattle and other cities served by Metro, and to make new perspectives and ideas available to all, the City Panorama Project seeks photographic artwork that will accomplish these objectives while increasing the visibility of the photographic arts. Over 450 photo murals have been installed since the launch of this public art project in 2010. This annual project is funded through a 4Culture grant and now enters its sixth year.
So special thanks to the Sunny Arms artists who collaborated to make this project happen and to all the Seattle and King County organizations who also collaborated to beautify our county.  I am honored to be a part of this.  If you are in the neighborhood be sure to stop by “our” bus shelter and oh, don’t forget to take the bus much more often!
Dec 30, 2015 | Blog
In June of 2014, the artists at the Sunny Arms, the building where I live and work in Seattle, started a long term pinhole photography  project exposing cameras from our windows for 90 day periods. The only parameter was the cameras had to be pointing out at the view from our various studios.  The description of this first season can be found in an earlier blog post, https://www.janetneuhauser.com/out-there-long-exposure-pinhole-photography-from-the-sunny-arms/.  I am happy to report as an update,  that those images from Season 1,  as I like to call it,  have been chosen for a public art project to be displayed on a King County bus shelter. This link shows the 2015 winners and their images:  http://pcnw.org/connect/2015-city-panorama-photo-mural-project/ .  Completion of the bus shelter is expected in the spring of 2016.
Meanwhile, the artists here at the Sunny Arms have continued to expose cameras  for two more seasons.  I did not know whether there would be any difference between the photographs from different seasons  and I was grateful for the commitment of the residents to tend their cameras. We have been gathering time and light, and I am happy to report that there indeed a big difference in the images.  Most of us have put cameras close to the same vantage point for each season.  All the paper and the cameras have been the same.
This fall, for the Sunny Arms Open Studios, I printed 20 diptychs of the first two seasons.  The third season is coming down now and I give you a few of the the paired images.  In March we will start the last of the four seasons:  the Spring Equinox to the Summer Solstice.  I love this project for it’s slowness and the quiet way the entire building is working together to make a document. Cameras fall down and get put back up;  tape slides down the windows, trucks rattle the tins loose.  The trees gain leaves and drop them, the sun trails move across the sky.  Two years will have passed when we are done with all four seasons instead of one year, which would have seemed rushed.  We skipped seasons for a number of reasons:  the cameras did not come down all at once and I thought it was important that everyone see the image they made before they made the next one.  It will be interesting to see if this delay made a difference.
Here are a few preliminary results:
Above: Â Looking north from the Snoqualmie Street first floor entrance, Fall to Winter. Â Right: Winter to Spring, same view. Â Both images made by Janet Neuhauser
Above: Â From the third floor (left), looking northeast, Winter to Spring. Â From the fifth floor,(right), looking northeast, Spring to Summer. Â These were made by Bang Jing Sun (left) and Janel Kolby (right).
Above:  First floor main entrance, left  Summer to Fall, Right:  Winter to Spring.  Both images made by Janet Neuhauser
Above: Â This one from Kevin Wilson and Laurie LeClair, first floor looking east. Â Left, Winter to Spring. Right: Â Fall to Winter.
There are plenty of others. Â I am just now in the process of sorting them out. Â We will begin the final season this Spring. Â Then after another 90 days, I will report back.
Featured image is from the first floor main entrance with a two hole pinhole camera, Fall to Winter.
Nov 18, 2014 | Blog
Right around the Solstice last summer, I asked everyone in the building where I live and work to expose a pinhole camera from their windows for ninety days for the Pinhole Project. The idea was to expose all the cameras from each studio in the building, leaving the cameras up from the Solstice to the Equinox. The cameras recorded amazing trails of the sun all summer and into the fall. The views are recognizable, at least for those of us who are here every day and tended the cameras through the heat of last summer. The colors are mysterious and varied. I thank my colleagues, friends, fellow artists, neighbors all who participated. I did not know, until we did this, how beautiful our neighborhood actually is or much the sun shines on us or how the freeway is just a little toy off in the distance. I also did not know you can see the light of the sun trails to north and the south as well as east and west.
The building where I live and work is an artist’s coop. We own the building together, 20 units in all and I have always loved the views, from all sides of the building. I wanted to capture them with the long exposure pinhole cameras, hoping this was a good idea, but during the ninety days,  I worried that the images might come out all the same. the views, the sun trails, the colors and the group as a whole would be boring.   Scanning completely proved me wrong. The thirty images which I have uploaded here are titled with the name/unit number of the pinhole photographer.  The grid, as it appears below, echoes how the printed images were hung in my studio last weekend.   Below the grid are all the images which can be viewed individually. The building sits up against I-5 in the SoDo area of Seattle right before the Spokane Street interchange. The front of the building faces due west, the back east, a few units have south windows, and all the units that face north have windows in that direction. The featured image shows a pinhole image of the building that I made last spring. It is a 30 day exposure and shows the building’s west side. You can see the sun trails from the east above the building and the sun trails from the west reflected in the front windows.
The 30 images were featured at the Open Studios at out building this past November 15th.  They are still up on my studio wall and will be up until Christmas time. Another opening will happen early in December. Stay tuned for dates and times and thanks for your continued support of the Pinhole Project.
 
