Rooftop Movie Solargraphs 2025

  What Is That Can Doing Up There?

First, congratulations on being observant enough to spot the can and to find the QR code that lead you here. And a big thank-you to Artrage and Rooftop Movies for letting me set up this little art project. If you came to Rooftop Movies last season, you might have seen these before. 

What you are looking at is a camera - a very special sort of camera, and the simplest possible. It is not digital, and it has no moving parts. All it is is a light-proof container, a pinhole, and a sheet of photographic paper. There isn't even a shutter.

"But wait!", I hear you say, "Doesn't that mean everything will be blurry?" Well, yes. Anything that moves, anyway. And almost everything that is not bolted down will move. And become invisible. Like you, for example. This camera could take your photo - but only if you were willing to sit or stand in the same place all day, every day, for months on end. The only things that stay still that long are buildings.

But that is not what this camera is for. 

There is one thing that moves that this can record. Something very bright. The brightest thing there is around here. The sun. Here's a photo from last season.

This Solargraph (the name for this sort of photo) is looking west for two weeks. That bright streak is the passage of the setting sun, and it shifts across the sky as the days pass. 

This one shows what happens over six months - from the shortest day of the year to the longest. 

So now you know.  I will be retrieving these on and off through the season, so look back here for updates!

You can see more of last season's project here,  and read more about my solargraphy here.

Again, my thanks to Artrage and Rooftop Movies. 

I acknowledge the traditional custodians of Borloo, the place this project is taking place on, and the Whadjuk Noongar people. I pay my respects to their Elders - past, present, and emerging.