| A
camera obscura is a room of any size that is made totally dark except
for a small opening to the outside. The tiny amount of light entering
the enclosed space produces a dim, upside-down image of the exterior
world on the wall of the room. The phenomenon was known to the ancient
Chinese, described by Aristotle, and analyzed by Leonardo da Vinci
in his notebooks. In the cameras they knew, the observer
was actually inside the camera as is Abelardo Morell. His photographs
bring us back to the camera's origin with his own camera as witness
to the experience.
Luc Sante writes about Abelardo Morell's work: “The camera obscura seems little short of miraculous, even after the optical rationale has been explained. That one half of the essential principal of photography is both ancient and technology-free still astounds. Morell’s photographs can be taken in by a single glance and appreciated all at once, but they continue to unfold, with layer upon layer of meaning, rendering the entire history of the human engagement with sight and the human desire to preserve vision. They return the art of photography to first principles and show us that we had only hastily considered what we always thought we knew.” Morell writes about his work: “Looking back at this camera obscura project, I'm struck by the continuing pleasure, energy and surprise that the images still provide me. I am convinced that this is due in large part to the way these photographs are tied up with the excitement I felt during my own beginnings in photography—a time for me when the world I photographed seemed charged with new possibilities, strangeness, and hope." |
Camera in Room, 1999
Houses Across the Street in Our Living Room, Quincy, Massachusetts, 1991
Boston's Old Custom House in Hotel Room, Boston, Massachusetts, 1999
Manhattan View Looking South in Large Room, New York, New York, 1996
The Chrysler Building in Hotel Room, New York, New York, 1999
Times Square in Hotel Room, New York, New York, 1997
The Brooklyn Bridge in Bedroom, Brooklyn, New York, 1999
San Francisco View Looking East, San Francisco, California, 2002
Hotel del Coronado in Room, San Diego, California, 1998
Tower Bridge in the Tower Hotel, London, England, 2001
Courtyard Building, Lacock Abbey, Lacock, England, March 16, 2003
The Eiffel Tower
in the Hotel Frantour,
Paris, France, 1999
Umbrian Landscape over Bed, Umbertide, Italy, 2000
