Here’s a cleaner rewritten version (same story, smoother for social media):
A photo that took eight years to capture.
In 2012, fine art student Regina Valkenborgh was experimenting with pinhole photography at the University of Hertfordshire’s Bayfordbury Observatory in England. She used a simple 500ml cider can, placed photographic paper inside it, poked a tiny hole in the side, and taped it to one of the observatory’s telescopes. Then she forgot about it.
More than eight years later, in September 2020, the observatory’s technical officer David Campbell was preparing the area for solar panel installation when he noticed the old can. Before throwing it away, he decided to check inside.
What he found was extraordinary.
The photographic paper had captured 2,953 arcing trails of the sun rising and setting across the sky over nearly a decade. The image even shows the observatory’s oldest telescope dome and, faintly, a structure that wasn’t built until 2017—right in the middle of the exposure period.
Valkenborgh had tried similar experiments before, but moisture usually ruined the paper. This one survived by pure chance, quietly recording the sun’s movement while Earth completed eight full orbits.
The previous record for the longest photographic exposure was four years and eight months, held by German artist Michael Wesely. Valkenborgh’s accidental image nearly doubled it.
She later said the photo reminds her how small human life is compared to the vast passage of time.
Just a beer can, a piece of paper, a tiny hole—and eight years of patience she didn’t even know she had.
Here’s a cleaner rewritten version (same story, smoother for social media):
A photo that took eight years to capture.
In 2012, fine art student Regina Valkenborgh was experimenting with pinhole photography at the University of Hertfordshire’s Bayfordbury Observatory in England. She used a simple 500ml cider can, placed photographic paper inside it, poked a tiny hole in the side, and taped it to one of the observatory’s telescopes. Then she forgot about it.
More than eight years later, in September 2020, the observatory’s technical officer David Campbell was preparing the area for solar panel installation when he noticed the old can. Before throwing it away, he decided to check inside.
What he found was extraordinary.
The photographic paper had captured 2,953 arcing trails of the sun rising and setting across the sky over nearly a decade. The image even shows the observatory’s oldest telescope dome and, faintly, a structure that wasn’t built until 2017—right in the middle of the exposure period.
Valkenborgh had tried similar experiments before, but moisture usually ruined the paper. This one survived by pure chance, quietly recording the sun’s movement while Earth completed eight full orbits.
The previous record for the longest photographic exposure was four years and eight months, held by German artist Michael Wesely. Valkenborgh’s accidental image nearly doubled it.
She later said the photo reminds her how small human life is compared to the vast passage of time.
Just a beer can, a piece of paper, a tiny hole—and eight years of patience she didn’t even know she had.
