Planting a seed

More pinhole musings with Jan Dunning, a British artist devoted to the stenopeic vision whose images show unlikely life forms, like giant plants growing from the floor of a room, "remote and unnerving landscapes" or "hybrid creatures involved in a process of change or evolution". Dunning carefully constructs or stages her photographs, inducing a fascinating suspension of disbelief.


The beauty of her work is exactly in the reversal of truth and fiction that she creates with her technique: while the mysterious blend of sharpness and blur of pinhole is often used to make ordinary things look extraordinary and magic, Dunning uses it to make the impossible look real. A veil of uncertainty fogs the light of her photographs, so that we can for once stop wondering if something is real or fake, and appreciate the simple fact that it feels real. With images like these, it is a nice feeling indeed.


All images © Jann Dunning