Sarah Holbrook’s Pinhole Universe

It’s the last month of spring semester and my students continue showing up (or not) with descriptions of personal injustices that have resulted in not having pictures to show or work on. I had managed to delay the onslaught of these excuses by handing out a universal excuse form at the beginning of the semester. That is a fill-in-the-blank multiple choice document listing every excuse I can remember hearing from students. I would include it here if it wasn’t so lengthy. Students are embarrassed into silence by my predetermined awareness of their tactics. Then, after a month or so, it starts. Last week a student had his camera stolen out of his car in the school parking lot. He swore that he’d have another camera soon. This week I asked him, “Where’s your camera?” “Oh, I left my new camera in my car.” And so the cycle starts all over again. The pinhole camera is the no cost alternative to help students conquer life’s many injustices. I’ll provide the box or cylinder and the film or paper that any student needs to get their work done at home or in class.

Sarah Holbrook’s pinhole universe does not usually include the classroom. The few that she is showing at the Greenfield Savings Bank branch in Conway, Massachusetts on Rte. 116 whet the appetite for more. Her prints are expansive and elegant. She makes her own cameras and tends to place them in unobtrusive spots on the deck or in the garden. Her results are glorious. They will be exhibited until April 23rd as part of a show called Celebrate Hilltown Art.