Pinhole photographer Phil Bonham says "there's a magic in taking a photo by using an ordinary tin with no lens." Among his pieces on display at The Pegge Hopper Gallery are "Fishing Pond, Waimanalo"...

Pinhole perspective

A visit to Waimanalo Beach in 2001 shocked artist Phil Bonham. An avid beachcomber, he expected to see driftwood, old ropes, and maybe some glass fishing floats if he was lucky.

What he was confronted with instead was "a beach littered with junk ... everything from plastic floats and great heaps of tangled drift net, to shoes, milk crates, bottles, foam rubber, shopping bags and snorkels."

In response, Bonham employed his pinhole cameras to capture images of Hawaii that reveal both its beauty and its environmental challenges. The collection of photographs are currently on display at The Pegge Hopper Gallery in "Here in Paradise," which runs through Feb. 2.

... "Here in Paradise"...

Bonham, a New Zealand native who graduated from the University of Hawaii with a degree in fine arts, makes his own pinhole cameras.

"They're just tins," he says. "I like cookie or cake tins for the round format prints, and smaller diameter tins for curving the panoramas. Each tin imprints its own characteristics onto the negative -- angle of view, degree of enlargement, or distortions -- and so I carry a bag of tins with me and choose a particular one for the effect that I want."

Bonham says that without a viewfinder, it takes educated guesswork and a love of surprises to pull off pinhole photography.

"There is always an element of surprise," he says. "Some photos are thrown away, others are a pleasant surprise. I like that."

The Pegge Hopper Gallery is located at 1164 Nuuanu Avenue. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays to Fridays and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. Call 524-1160.

..."Hawaiian Time."

Bonham captured a closeup of a drift net in Waimanalo with his homemade pinhole camera.