Laura Stanger Photography: Abelardo Morell: Camera Obscura

"I made my first picture using camera obscura techniques in my darkened living room in 1991. In setting up a room to make this kind of photograph, I cover all windows with black plastic in order to achieve total darkness. Then, I cut a small hole in the material I use to cover the windows. This allows an inverted image of the view outside to flood onto the walls of the room. I would focus my large-format camera on the incoming image on the wall and expose the film. In the beginning, exposures took five to ten hours.

Over time, this project has taken me from my living room to all sorts of interiors around the world. One of the satisfactions I get from making this imagery comes from my seeing the weird and yet natural marriage of the inside and outside.

A few years ago, in order to push the visual potential of this process, I began to use color film and positioned a lens over the hole in the window plastic in order to add to the overall sharpness and brightness of the incoming image. Now, I often use a prism to make the projection come in right side up. I have also been able to shorten my exposures considerably thanks to digital technology, which in turn makes it possible to capture more momentary light. I love the increased sense of reality that the outdoor has in these new works .The marriage of the outside and the inside is now made up of more equal partners."

http://www.abelardomorell.net/index.html

I love these photographs, I think the camera obscura is a simple yet very effective method. I came across an article on Morell in the National Geographic magazine in May 2011. After reading the article, I created my own camera obscura in a room in my house. The results were fascinating and I was very stunned. However, unfortunately, the sun had gone in therefore there was not much light outside. I am looking forward to experimenting with it again on a sunny day.