Analemma in photography

Solargraphy

In 2000, Slawomir Decyk , Paweł Kula and Diego Lopez Calvin invented solargraphy, a technique that allows to record tracks the sun in the sky during the extremely long exposure times. It is a combination of pinhole photography with a totally innovative approach to the use of photographic paper. Black-and-white photographic paper is photosensitive itself. Incident light causes blackening of the paper without any chemical development. This property of the paper was known for a long time, but due to the low effective sensitivity have not been applied. No one had ever planned exposure of photographic paper without the use of developer and fixer. The use of a dry paper in combination with pinhole camera extends exposure times from one day to six months or longer. The amount of light which goes through the pinhole (with a diameter less than 1mm) makes moving objects invisible in solargraphs. No people, no animals, no cars on the street. It remains only to what was motionless the whole time during the duration of the exposure. Only one registered object in motion is the Sun, which leaves bright curved lines one above each other, broken by periods of cloudiness. Each line corresponds to one day. Every day the Sun is plotting a path at a different height above the horizon. This opens the possibility to register analemma.

Analemma in solargraphy

Solargraphy technique requires specific character: patience. However, the attempt to capture the analemma forces one to go even further. Requires knowledge necessary for its registration. Thinking over the entire project deeply into various aspects: the direction of the field-of-view of the camera, expositiom period, exposition time, how to solve the problem of accurate timing, power supply, etc. If all this would succeded 365 times the success will be possible. Analemma captured by solargraphy is unique: it is recorded on a single frame without overlapping or digital image capture. It is the first ever exposed every day.

The list of registered analemmas over the world

No.	Year	Author	Location	Method	No. of expositions	Remarks	Reference
1	1979	Dennis di Cicco	USA	analog	45	Single frame	link
2	1989	H.J.P. Arnold	UK	analog	40	Single + foreground
3	1991	Frank Zullo	USA	analog	38	Single + foreground
4	1999	Jack Fishburn	USA	analog	26	Single frame
5	1999	Vasiliy Rumyantsev	Ukraine	analog	34	Single frame
6	2003	Anthony Ayiomamitis	Greece	digital	46
7	2004	Juan Carlos Casado	Spain	analog	53	digitally processed	link
8	2005	Ivo Dinev	Romania	digital?	19	?	link
9	2006	Cenk E. Tezel & Tunç Tezel	Turkey	digital	32	composite	link
10	2008	Libor Judas (with: V. Dziedzicová, M. Krejčí, Š. Vejvančický)	Czech Republic	analog camera + digital processing	47	composite	link
11	2010?	Tamas Ladanyi	Hungary	digital	36		link
12	2011	Paweł Janczaruk	Poland	analog, pinhole	30?	Single frame	link
13	2011?	Sharon F. Keisha	?	digital	21		link
14	2012	Robert Pölzl	Austria	digital
15	2012	Thomas Hebbeker	Germany	digital	365		link
16	2012	Tunç Tezel	Azerbaijan	digital	18?	composite	link
17	2013	Peter Hill	?	solargraphy	50	Single frame	link
18	2013	Robert Nufer	Schwitzerland	movie	Every 1 minute		link
19	2013	Pál Váradi Nagy	Romania	digital	26+1	composite	link
20	2013	Shiraishi	Japan	digital	50		link
21	2014	Zapiór & Fajfrowski	Poland	solargraphy	365, 3 times a day	Single frame, 3 analemmas	analemma.pl
22	2014	?	India	digital	26		link
23	2014	György Soponyai	Hungary	digital	?	composite	link
24	2014	István Mátis	Romania	digital	?	composite	link
25	2014	Adrianos Golemis	Antarctica	digital	23	Composite. Only a half of the analemma visible, because of the polar night.	Link
26	2014	Luca Vanzella	Canada	analog and digital	38+1	Single frame and composite	Link
27	2015	Dariusz Dorosz	Poland	solargraphy	approx. 160	6-min exposition daily	Link
28	2015	Zapiór & Fajfrowski	Poland	solargraphy	365, 5 times a day	Single frame, 5 analemmas	analemma.pl
29	2015	Zapiór & Fajfrowski	Poland	solargraphy	365, 4 times a day	Single frame, 4 analemmas	analemma.pl
30	2017	Piotr Różalski	Poland	solargraphy	365, 3 times a day	Single frame, 3 analemmas	Link