Photography is, at its core, the capturing of rays of light onto light-sensitive material. Long before the invention of the camera, people noticed that images could be made if this light-sensitive material were "exposed" for a period of time. In today's world these images are captured on film and digital sensors. The camera, with a hole (aperture) and a shutter, opens to and subsequently closes off the light from hitting the film/sensor.
The earliest cameras used extremely small holes known as pinholes. They didn't use glass or lenses. Simply exposing the light-sensitive material to light through the pinhole for varied periods of time would leave an impression, and from that an image would be created. Eventually "cameras" got lenses which allowed for more precise imagery, and those lenses came to allow the image-maker to fashion photographs -- literally "light drawing" -- with wide and narrow angles.
The photographs below were created with a glassless lens, just a cylinder attached to the camera with a pinhole. The only controls I can use are how long I allow the light in (via the shutter) and how sensitive to light I want the camera's digital sensor to be (ISO). No glass. No lens. Just a tiny hole through which the rays of light pass. The size of the hole will determine how sharp or soft the image will be. Right now I'm into "soft." There is an ethereal-ness to these pictures, reminiscent (at least to my eyes) of impressionist painting.
