Pinhole Photography, 4th Edition

CHAPTER 7

Alternative Apertures: Zone Plates and Slits

Only a weak light glimmers, like a tiny point in an enormous circle of blackness. This weak light is no more than an intimation which the soul scarcely has the courage to perceive, doubtful whether the light might not itself be a dream, and the circle of blackness, reality.

Vasily Kandinsky

ZONE PLATES

Had it not been for Kenneth A. Connors, zone plates may have been overlooked when alternative processes came into their own in the 1990s. He researched the enigmatic zone plate (Figure 7.1), contributed articles about its properties in Interest during the 1970s,¹ and made his findings available to a wider audience through Pinhole Journal. If not for Connors, zone plates would have quietly ...