There is an exhibit of Abelardo Morell's work at Union College in Schenectady, New York. (coming down tomorrow, I'm afraid!) I find that the things of his that I like the most are some of the pictures of everyday objects, the water pouring out of a cup for example. The camera obscura photos, well, I think he's got them upside down! Seeing this show got me thinking about the relative weight of direct and projected images in photography. I've noticed that I like at least some of the camera obscura photos much better upside down. They are remarkably more balanced, though initially more ambiguous. The projected image is fainter and more distorted than the direct image of the room, harder to recognize. Inverting the photograph, thus righting the projected image and inverting the direct image brings home the illusory quality of both images. With apologies to Abelardo Morell, examples: <http://meaningandform.com/photography/illustr/morell13.jpg> <http://meaningandform.com/photography/illustr/morell13inv.jpg> <http://meaningandform.com/photography/illustr/morell2.jpg> <http://meaningandform.com/photography/illustr/morell2inv.jpg> They're very interesting but it's a case of the idea overpowering the picture, at least in part. Once the initial idea is expressed, it seems to be hard to get any other meaning into them. That said, some of them are quite beautiful, and some of his other photographs are really quite charged. There's more Morell here: <http://www.edelmangallery.com/morell.htm> > Congratulations to Guy and his collaborators on this > amazing photograph ! It has the aura of a late 1800's cyclorama, > and embodies echoes of Nicephore Niepce's "View from his window at > Gras", one of the earliest photographs ever made. Like Niepce's, > it is a view from a window, of other buildings, using a camera > obscura, and a long exposure (Niepce's was 8+ hrs). > > I do not consider events like this a stunt. They push back the horizon, > effectively creating fertile, new conceptual ground for exploration. > [I like to think of things like this as a "dream engine".] > Hopefully, the team will find sponsorship for this work to be seen > and furnish inspiration and wonder to countless viewers. > > --- Luis > >Ps. For those interested in this type of image, I urge you to search for > Abelardo Morrel's (sp ?) work on the web. It has some methodological > similarities, yet is very different. -- Alan P. Hayes Meaning and Form: Writing, Editing and Document Design Pittsfield, Massachusetts
