She writes: "When I photograph the conversion of an existing building or the construction of a site-specific camera obscura, I emphasize the people involved. Some of my photographs show them standing outside being projected inside the camera, perhaps on the sleeve of a friend or on a sheet held by a member of their family. The people outside become the people inside and vice-versa."
Ms. Izadi's private commissions are site-specific with an emphasis on landscape. She writes: "These pieces are a direct reference to the sublime and the romantic. I intend my commissioned installations to be about the romance and magic of the camera obscura which I construct with the sole purpose of applauding nature and containing it as if in a painting."
She likes to limit the number of visitors inside her cameras in order to encourage an intimate, private viewing experience. Ms. Izadi writes: "When I am inside a camera with other people, I notice it is very quiet. People sit down or somehow make themselves comfortable so they can take the time to patiently view the contained world outside."
Cinemateque
de Tanger
Grand Socco, Tangiers, Morocco, 2006
Commissioned
by The Photographers’ Gallery, London to make a film inside a camera
obscura of CInemateque de Tanger for September 2006 “Explorations
in Film and Video” exhibition
We borrowed the roof
of a local shop where we erected temporary scaffolding (borrowed from
the cinema) for two days. We borrowed a typically stitched Moroccan tent
from a farm and rigged lights onto the cinema to illuminate the structure
in the evening. The camera was visited by a handful
of local Tangerines who had never before seen live projections. The light
on the day of of the filming was extraordinary with constantly changing
storm clouds moving through the sky.
Llandrhaedr,
North Wales, 2005
Private
commission to convert a grain silo into a camera obscura
This camera has six equidistant apertures, each containing lenses projected
a 360° image of the surrounding landscape onto the steel interior.
The tank was originally located on a farm in Nuneaton,. from where it was
transported to North Wales on the back of an enormous trailer. As we approached
the site, we found the trailer too wide for the winding paths and narrow
gates. We parked the tank in a local quarry for a week while locating a
smaller trailer to take the tank the final distance through the fields
of sheep. The local people called the structure “The Sputnik.”
Sa
Bassa Blanca
Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 2005
Commissioned
by Foundation Ben y Yannick Jakober to convert an old army bunker overlooking
the bay of Palma de Mallorca into a camera obscura
Using
two lenses of ten-cm diameter, two different views were projected
inside the room—an image of the local lighthouse. The
image was projected onto a freestanding screen commissioned
for the site.
“Another
Flower Show” Pirelli GardensVictoria and Albert Museum, London, 2005
Ten artists were commissioned to each convert a standard sized wooden garden shed into an art installation using the theme of flowers.
I modified my shed by creating a small corridor so as to minimize the light entering the structure as people entered and left. This camera obscura had a moving lens below an aperture placed in the ceiling which travelled up and down on a motor. This focused and blurred the projected image of the sky and clouds which was projected onto a table.
Western
Sahara Refugee CampSouthern Algeria. Africa, 2005.
I commissoned the women’s co-op from the “27th February camp” to create a camera obscura from a local tent.
Tents are in abundance throughout the camps. They are a refuge in the winter months since they warm up quickly in the sun when the weather turns cold. The women left me for two days to collect material, then they took three days to sew the pieces together at the site. They narrated stories and sang traditional Sahraoui songs while sewing together and making the tent light tight. The camera obscura was located next to the camp school and was left standing for five days. Children visited the camera out of curiousity where they played with screens and discoverd the novelty of projecting images of their relatives and friends onto their school jackets and sheets of tracing paper.
Nagaon
Beach, Aibaug India
Frames and Architecture Workshop, 2000
Commissioned
by "Indian Architect and Builder Magazine" to collaborate
with architect Bijoy Jain on the workshop “Frames and Architecture,” December,
2000.
Permission
from Indian Customs was required and was only granted
48 hours before the 80-member pinhole/camera obscura
workshop
was due to begin.
They could not understand why we wanted to build a “dabba” (wooden
box) on the beach.
Set up on a secluded beach two hours from the city
of Mumbai, the wooden structure was built on-site by 15 local carpenters
over two days and nights. At night the carpenters worked by halogen lights
and the full moon.
At
midnight, the full moon brought the tide right up to the structure
until it was
inches
deep in water. We were all on tenterhooks throughout
the night hoping the ocean wouldn’t completely destroy it
nor take it out to sea. Next morning, the
camera obscura was still there but now under the threat
from the incoming morning
tide. Word got round the village that we needed manpower and
within a quarter of an hour, 50 men appeared
and collectively
picked up the structure and carried it along the beach, up into
the safety of a forest.
The
damaged walls and floor were cleaned and filled with sand by local
women and children.
The
camera obscura, measured 20’ in length
and 3’ in the centre with 3-3/4 “ equidistant
pinholes running along the length of the walls on either side,
projected
a repeated scene of the sea on one wall and the forest on the opposite
wall.
Local people
heard a rumour that a Bollywood film was being shot on the beach.
They were confused when all they found was a wooden box.
Pinhole
ResourceNew Mexico, USA, 1997
Commissioned by Eric Renner and Nancy Spencer to build a camera obscura for the Pinhole Resource
The construction is based on the nautilus shell. It is constructed from wire, clad with metal sheets and covered with two layers of cement.
Surrey
Institute of Art and DesignFarnham, Surrey, 1995
Degree show piece. Situated in a courtyard at college, built by hand by the patient Bob Turner (head sculpture technician) and friends
Eight layers went into the building of the structure over three weeks. This piece was about light in it’s purest form. 18 apertures of differing dimensions were carved into the domed ceiling, casting spots of sunlight onto the walls when the sun was out and simple hints of light when it was overcast. Clouds passing the sun projected a moving image onto the walls. It was the first time I had seen live projected images.
Middle
Row Primary SchoolKensal Road, London
Temporary camera obscura erected for the school fête
The four walls and roof were quickly assembled on site in the morning, ready for the children to stick this sign onto the exterior. The children’s reactions inside the structure when viewing the projections were glorious, laughing hystericallly every time they recognized one of their friends upside down.
Michael
Faraday Primary SchoolTreeHouse Camera Obscura
Southwark, London
Collaboration with The Facility Architects, London, to build a camera obscura for a local school
When the structure arrived at the site on the back of a lorry, the children were interviewed for a radio show. One child said that he couldn’t believe they were getting their own space ship that was the size of a tree. This is the first permanent camera obscura commission for a public school which will be used as an educational tool bridging the study of science and art.
