Solarcan records months of sunlight in a single photograph

Set up a camera and return much later. Instead of passing people, it is the sun's path across the sky that remains in the image. Solarcan is a pinhole camera that uses a tiny opening and photographic paper for long exposures. Its drinks-can-shaped body has no electronic screen or button for reviewing photographs.

Light entering the hole in its side falls onto the paper inside. Unlike a digital camera recording light through a lens onto a sensor, the paper itself is the recording surface. According to the manufacturer, a long exposure visibly changes the paper, producing an image without chemical development.

An exposure of several months would be far too long to freeze a single midday scene. Here, that duration is how the sun's movement is recorded. On clear days its path leaves a line, with the height changing through the seasons. Cloudy periods leave different traces. Weather and seasonal changes share one photograph.

The direction chosen at installation and the security of the mounting therefore matter throughout. If the camera shifts, different views overlap on the same paper. Instead of reframing daily and choosing the best shot, you keep the original position and wait. Exposures can last from a day to several months; six months is not mandatory.

When the exposure is finished, avoid opening the camera in bright light for an immediate look. The instructions say to cover the hole, retrieve the camera, and remove the paper under dim light for scanning. The paper remains sensitive to light. The scanned image can then be digitally processed, including inversion.

Waiting alone does not guarantee a beautiful photograph. It does let you see the sun's paths between installation and retrieval all at once. A camera usually taken out for a moment can instead stay in place while a season passes.