A Hole New Image “Hey, they look great!” Taro Nagaoka called to his mother, Linda Weinstein, as he emerged into daylight with a tray of wet paper negatives. The just-developed images were a bit fuzzy but the buildings, lamp posts, and esplanade were unmistakably Battery Park City. What made those crude pictures so exciting was that they came from cameras that Taro and other fourth and fifth graders had made themselves—from cigar boxes.   The budding photographers were participants in the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy’s afterschool photo program, taught by Doug Van Horn, which ended last month. As the kids made cameras with simple pinhole lenses, they began to learn that photography is not about gadgetry but about light. “The challenge was in selling the low techness of it,” said Van Horn, adding that in time the children took pride in work crafted from their own hands. “Taking pictures is a lot more fun when you get to build the camera yourself,” remarked nine-year-old Max Kiss. After the children produced indiscernable results the first time, Van Horn gave them a pep talk on keeping their cameras still during the long exposures, and not opening them in the light. It worked, much to the children’s delight.   “You can’t see [the subject] perfectly,” said Taro, “but you see it in a different way.” He could have been talking about art.