The Pinhole Camera Workshop at the Ladakh Literature Festival 2019 was an exercise in understanding the optical phenomenon that makes us and our cameras see the world. Our workshop participants covered the Bukhari Room in the Ladakh Arts & Media Organisation (LAMO) Centre with blackout cloth, cardboard and aluminium foil, making the space completely light proof. A small hole was then carved on one of the covered windows, unveiling the inverted image of the Old Town onto a wall inside the Bukhari Room of the LAMO Centre.

The walk-in camera obscura became a springboard for reflections on how images are formed–in our eyes as well as across photographic devices, changing the dimensions of our external reality. As the outside came into being inside the space, the workshop paved the way for a deeper understanding of light and laid bare the true nature of photography.