PAGer Rich Bergeman is debuting a new series of platinum prints made with a home-made pinhole camera at the Corvallis Arts Centers’ Corrine Woodman Gallery Feb. 2 through March 6. The images, all made within the past seven months, offer a "wide-eyed look" at curious details found at docks and along shorelines from Newport Harbor to Winchester Bay. The photographs were taken with a simple camera the photographer fashioned out of a wooden cigar box fitted with a 5”x7” film holder on the back and a tiny hole punched in the front. Because pinhole cameras do not use a lens, they make images that are sharper and brighter in the center than at the edges, and can be placed extremely close to subjects. And because there is no way to accurately preview the picture being taken, there’s an element of chance and serendipity involved that makes picture taking more playful. The prints themselves are done in the traditional 19th century platinum process, one of photography’s earliest and most permanent printing methods. The Corvallis Arts Center is open from 12 to 5pm Tuesday through Saturday at 700 SW Madison Ave.

"Buoys at Newport Harbor" by Rich Bergeman