A pinhole camera is a simple box with a small hole in it. When exposed to light, the image passes through the hole and shows up inverted on the other side of the box. It's as simple a camera as you can get, and the effect has been known for thousands of years.
It's difficult to take a good photo with a pinhole camera, because you have to balance the size of the hole with the distance to the object and the sharpness of the resulting image. Still, ever since I wrote about the
Afghan Camera project, I've been fascinated by the incredible images that can be achieved.
Here are some great examples of photos taken with pinhole cameras.