UPCOMING EVENTS

“Visible Traces” NJ Pinhole Club Member Exhibition Opening in September, 2024. More details to come!

PAST EVENTS

I’m thrilled to announce “Upcycle//Uplift”, an exhibition that I curated for the Trenton City Museum.

Opening Reception December 3rd from 5-8pm.

More info + register at: https://www.uniquephoto.com/event/P121

Join Heather Palecek for an immersive 4-hour workshop where you’ll learn the history of pinhole photography, explore different types of camera builds, make your own pinhole camera, and discuss composition and technique.

We'll also head outside to nearby landmarks, like Penn's Landing and Independence Square, to create up to 6 exposures on paper negatives. Once back at Unique, you'll learn how to develop your photographs in a darkroom and then digitally scan them with Heather's help.

Leave the workshop with your handmade pinhole camera, darkroom prints, digital scans, and a new passion for pinhole photography!

*Limited to 15 registrants.
*No prior knowledge necessary.
*Materials will be provided.
*Masks required unless proof of vaccination provided.

“Still Resisting” opens in The Romano Gallery on September 21, giving visitors the opportunity to view the work of analog photographer Heather Palecek. Ms. Palecek uses historical photography processes in experimental ways, collaborating with nature in each of her projects. Most notably a pinhole photographer, she also works with cyanotype and lumen printing, as well as digital photography, all of which will be on view. Her upcoming exhibition at Blair addresses humans’ relationship with nature and cautions against our overwhelming desire for convenience, featuring a series of cyanotypes about climate change made with food waste, a lumen print installation about the negative effects of single-use plastics, as well as a selection of work celebrating the resilience of plants.

“As a society, I believe our desire for convenience is prohibiting us from experiencing life fully, being present in our interactions, having empathy and living sustainably,” Ms. Palecek said. “I hope you will leave this exhibit thinking about your own relationship to mother nature and how our choices of convenience can impact our relationships with each other and the Earth.” 

Small World Coffee on Nassau Street will soon open it’s gallery to 7 local artists working with the historical photography process of pinhole photography. The exhibition is scheduled to open on Thursday, September 9 and run through October 5. You can visit the exhibit any day during business hours or come to meet the artists during the reception on Sunday, September 12 from 12:00-3:00.

Pinhole Photography requires the artist to use a rudimentary lens-less camera, oftentimes homemade from recycled materials, to capture an image through a small pin-sized hole. This type of camera lends itself to creating photographs with long exposures with almost infinite depth of field, possible light leaks, and warped perspectives. The unique aesthetic is a charming characteristic of pinhole photography that can also be described as magical and otherworldly. You can glimpse that magic in Sharon Harris’s surreal portraiture or the landscape photographs that Maurice Fitzpatrick creates in his homemade cigar box camera and lomography cameras, or in the photographs of sun trails that Jeff McConnell and Heather Palecek create with their pinhole cameras. Marissa Bunting will exhibit her wildly abstract “solar trails” photographs, and you can also expect to see work from the talented Gul Cevikoglu and Chris Marinari.

These 7 artists are members of the NJ Pinhole Club, founded in 2021 by Heather Palecek. This is their first group exhibit.

Our Wet Memories curated by Nanako Liu (Taiwan)

Place: Institut d’Estudis Fotogràfics de Catalunya

Selected artists: Sabine Skodda, Mathilde Salsi, Sara Bensaltana, Heather Palecek, Carlos Baselga, Paula Dornan, Agata Tomasiewicz, and Fanny Genty.

Abstract: “All Memories are traces of tears” 2046, Wong Kar-Wai

We put selected photo prints into a water tank with a bobble machine and detergent. After 15 days, those photo prints become auto-destructive art. The issue I want to discuss is: how could we hold a memory forever? Moments and memories will fade away, even if we took a photo and tried hard to keep it. Even if all memories disappeared in the end, we could use a poetic phantom to remember them.