the 7th day - Concept

an art project with Camera Obscura
Take part!

EXPOSE A PHOTOGRAPH 7 DAYS LONG

in a technology from Nicéphore Niépce from 1816, without a photo lab and without chemistry.

The 7th day - participation

You receive 1 pinhole camera loaded with photo paper, an envelope and a description. On the envelope is a number, at this number you will find the pictures on the Internet. Fasten the pinhole camera (angle of vision approx. 120 ° - approx. 15 mm of focal length correspond in the small picture format) and expose at least 7 days (14 days in winter). The box is water resistant and the exposure time of 7 (or 14) days refers to the recording outside closed rooms. Inside, you should expose for several months. The admission begins if you remove the tape.
After exposing you get the ready negative out of the tin (At dimmed lighting!!!) and send it with added envelope to the address:

Studio Zajfert
Gutbrodstr. 42
70193 Stuttgart
Germany

I scan the negatives for you and you can watch the ready pictures on the Internet and download them.
By participation in this project you have access to the archive in which all pictures, from all participants are ready for you. You can store them, print out or allow to print out. The negative which you will send me, is going to be destroyed through light beam during the scan progress, only the information is left. So only one single scan try is possible. That's why limits are set in relation of the resolution (with very big files the quality loss would be visible in the course of the picture).

Here you can order the participation in the project -the 7th day-

Price: €10,00 + plus shipping costs €2,00 - within Germany,  €4,00 - Europe, €8,00 - World  (invoice included in box)

The 7th day - recording method

Already about 1200 Albertus Magnus knew of the oxidation and density of the silver nitrate. In 1719 Johann Heinrich Schulz has experimentally proved that silver salts darken with insolation.

Nicéphore Niépce used this characteristic of the silver nitrate in his photographic experiment, from 1816. He fastened with silver nitrate coated paper on the back of a Camera Obscura (which was equipped with a lens) and laid them near a window. After a few days of exposure an effigy originated in the negative, which became black with the influence of light and disappeared. This procedure called Niépce "Retines".

The camera from the project „The 7th day“ has instead of a lens, a piece of aluminium with a small stung hole. On the back wall is, with silver bromide coated, photo paper (customary Black and white photo paper). See that, by the hole much less light comes through than by a lens, much longer exposure times are necessary in comparison to the procedure of Niépce. The deciding one is what was not possible in 1816, the preservation of the so resulted negative. Today this is feasible by the digital copy procedure.
After exposing you "fix" the state of the photo paper by photograph or scan it. At the PC the negative can be converted in the positive.