Corona turned beer cans into cameras to capture Cape Town in a new light

What happens when you turn a Corona can into a camera, point it towards the sun and leave nature to do the rest?

Cape Town’s creative community got to see the results during First Thursday at CHIMI, where the Corona Solargraph Series offered a different perspective on some familiar South African locations.

The exhibition features images created using Corona cans transformed into functioning pinhole cameras, with sunlight, time and nature ultimately determining what each photograph would become.

Each camera was positioned for one to two weeks, recording the movement of the sun and producing a one-of-a-kind solargraph.

Familiar places through a different lens

The project took the unusual cameras to recognisable locations across Cape Town and Johannesburg.

These included Fourways, Fairy Glen Nature Reserve, Camps Bay, Green Point, Table Mountain and Chapman’s Peak.

Instead of capturing an instant photograph, each camera remained in place as the sun moved across the sky over several days.

The resulting solargraphs reveal familiar spaces through an entirely different lens, bringing Corona’s belief that “Beautiful things happen when you let the sun in” to life.

One chance to get the shot right

Creating the solargraphs required careful consideration of each location.

The cameras had to face north, while creators needed to frame the foreground beneath the anticipated arcs of the sun.

Once everything was positioned, there was no opportunity to adjust the shot.

The cameras were left in place for nature to complete the image.

Fari Sanyika, Travel Creator with Corona South Africa, said the process offered a contrast to the instant nature of today’s digital culture.

“In a world where anyone can generate an image in seconds, this project forced us to create something that couldn’t be rushed,” said Sanyika.

“Getting outside to carefully consider what you’re shooting is really the spirit of Living Is Calling.”

Even a Johannesburg billboard became a camera

The experiment wasn’t limited to beer cans.

Corona took the concept to one of advertising’s oldest formats by transforming a hero billboard in Fourways, Johannesburg, into a functioning pinhole camera.

For 14 days, the billboard recorded the sun’s journey, creating a solargraph of the scene in front of it while teasing passers-by about the image being created.

The campaign was produced through a collaboration between creative agencies Boundless and Sunshine Gun, combining the technical process behind solargraphy with an artistic interpretation of familiar surroundings.

At the heart of the Solargraph Series is a simple idea: the beauty around us is already there.

Sometimes seeing it differently means slowing down long enough to look.

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