Pinhole photography is lensless photography. A tiny hole replaces the lens. Light passes through the hole, an image is formed in the camera.

Pinhole cameras are small or large, improvised or designed with great care. Cameras have been made of sea shells, many have been made of oatmeal boxes, coke cans or cookie containers, at least one has been made of a discarded refrigerator. Cameras have been cast in plaster like a face mask, constructed from hardwoods, built of metal with bellows and a range of multiple pinholes. Station wagons have been used as pinhole cameras – and rooms in large buildings. Basically a pinhole camera is a box, with a tiny hole at one end and film or photographic paper at the other.

In photography the pinhole camera is just an imaging device with its advantages and limitations, special characteristics and potentials.