{"id":325735,"date":"2026-03-03T00:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T00:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/325735\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T00:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T00:11:11","slug":"photographer-makes-pinhole-camera-out-of-chinese-roast-duck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/325735\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographer Makes Pinhole Camera Out of Chinese Roast Duck"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

You can make a pinhole camera out of just about anything \u2014 as an Italian photographer recently proved by building one from pasta<\/a>. Continuing that playful nod to culinary heritage via the medium of photography, Martin Cheung has been creating images with a Chinese roast duck as his camera.<\/p>\n

PetaPixel reported on Cheung\u2019s Duckcam all the way back in 2011<\/a>, now he has resurrected his idea and recently tried it out in Paris and in London. <\/p>\n

Cheung grew up in Hong Kong before moving to Melbourne when he was 15-years-old. When he arrived in Australia, he says he felt \u201cweird\u201d because he became aware that he was viewed by others as a Chinese person. \u201cGrowing up in Hong Kong has always made me feel like a world citizen,\u201d he tells PetaPixel. <\/p>\n

When he was 18, he was working in a kitchen in Melbourne\u2019s Chinatown while studying photography. It was there that he had an idea to explore his identity through his studies. <\/p>\n

\u201cRoast duck is a symbol of Chinese cooking, so I wanted to see how the duck itself saw Chinatown,\u201d he says. \u201cSuckling pig can be made into a camera, too, but it\u2019s hard to find a good one. It\u2019s more feasible to get a duck. And its skin color is more appropriate for making a pinhole camera, as the reddish color helps prevent light leaks.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\"APhotographing the Eiffel Tower with roast duck. \"TwoThe negatives. <\/p>\n

Cheung\u2019s roast duck camera, unsurprisingly, created some intrigue. \u201cI recall under the Eiffel Tower, it was Valentine\u2019s Day and it was freezing,\u201d he says. \u201cThere were a few groups of people who came up and looked at me with confused smiling faces, but without any further conversation.\u201d <\/p>\n

If Parisians were only mildly intrigued, Cheung says it was different in London\u2019s Chinatown. \u201cIt was a Sunday, and there was a lion dance on the sixth day of Lunar Chinese New Year; the crowd was much busier and more interactive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AIn London \"AChinatown in London <\/p>\n

The photographer says that during the four-minute exposure, almost every other person stopped to take a look at what he was doing and asked him about it. \u201cI assume they came to see the lion dance; they didn\u2019t expect to see Duckcam,\u201d he adds. <\/p>\n

Cheung says that while he felt embarrassed during the exposure while among a busy crowd, he is learning to be less shy. \u201cI quite believe that most people get to know the surface of a culture through food,\u201d he says. \u201cI will continue making Duckcam while I travel, so next time when you see a person with a roasted duck on a tripod, please say hello to me.\u201d <\/p>\n

More of Cheung\u2019s work can be found on his Instagram<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Image credits: Photographs by Martin Cheung<\/p>\n