Photography Homework
Research one photographer & analyse one of their
photos
The photographer I have chosen to research & work
analyse is Abelardo Morell. The reason why I have chosen to research him &
analyse his work is because, as he is known for his camera obscura work, I find
his photos very outstanding from others & very inspiring from others in
which I have previously seen of the camera obscura calibre.
Biography
Abelardo Morell is a photographer who is well known for his
mastery of the Camera Obscura technique/subject. Morell was born in Havana,
Cuba in 1948 & immigrated with his family to New York in 1962. From there
he earned a multiple of degrees, in effort of course, to improve his skills
& progress in his desired field. He earned a bachelor of arts from Bowdoin
college in 1977, master of fine arts from Yale University school of art in 1981
& an honorary doctorate of fine arts degree from Bowdoin in 1997.
He has also been many fellowships & other awards, for
his work & contributions towards/for his photographic work.
For those who do not know, Camera obscura is a, or should I
say the technical term, for Pinhole Photography.
His work has been collected & shown in many galleries,
museums & institutions, in the United States, some including the Museum of
Modern Art, the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York, The Chicago Art Institute
& The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Not only that it has been shown
in over seventy over museums in the united states & abroad.
His newest body of work “Flowers for Lisa” will be published
in the fall of 2018, as well as an upcoming show at Rose Gallery in Santa
Monica, California on view October 28th, 2017 – January 6th,
2018.
Photo analysis
In this section, I am going to be choosing one of Abelardo
Morell’s photos & analysing. This section will be comprised of mostly my
research & my opinions.
I have chosen this photo from his collection because, it is
the one that caught my eye the most when I looked through, that’s not because
of it colour, I think the photo is fantastic and could hold more possible
meaning than first thought, or should I say first glance.
What does it look like?
When I look at the photo, from first glance, it is clearly
obvious what the subject looks like, that subject being the Brooklyn bridge, a
view of it to be exact in a bedroom. The photo has been done so well that the
photo genuinely looks like it could be, the bridge that is, wallpaper on the
wall. The subject, and the photo in general, holds quite mellow tones of
colour, as well as low lighting on the foreground, I think this is because it
allows the background of the Brooklyn bridge to stand out from the rest of the
subject matter.
How was it made?
From my knowledge, I know that this photo was taken via
pinhole photography, as Morell is a well-known Camera-less photographer who
specialises in pinhole photography, but from my research I have been able to
find out that Morell used a more advanced, yet bigger version of a pinhole
camera, to take a photo as such.
From my research I found that Morell, started production of
photos like this by setting in a room, then covering all the windows with black
plastic to achieve total darkness. He then proceeded to cut a small hole in the
black plastic, which then allowed an inverted image of the view outside of the
room, wherever that setting outside the room may be to flood onto the back
walls of the room. He then began to position a lens over the whole in the
plastic, this is used to add to the overall sharpness & brightness of the
projected image. He also then used colour film to capture the image via using
camera exposure for a certain length of time, which is what you would also do
when using a traditional pinhole camera. Exposures for photos like this can
take up from 5 to 10 hours to do.
This process is a way of course photography as it is done by
pinhole photographic techniques, but mostly by installation because of the time
taken & process it took for Abelardo Morell to take such a photo.
How does it make you feel?
In my opinion, when I look at the photo, it gives me a sense
of freedom, it makes me feel like I am in a music video of some sorts. For me
the photo creates an unreal experience, it creates a positive experience or
should I say atmosphere for me, physically & mentally. What I mean by that
is physically, the photo is stunning & can instantly make you go wow, that
is stunning, so it creates a positive effect that way And Mentally, I mean, it
can make you think or say to yourself, I can do that, I want to do that whilst
also make yourself question, how did the artist do that? And questions of such
as well as, “is this real?” hence why I also stated it makes me feel like I am
in a music video of some sorts, it gives me a sense of escaped realism. I also
feel that the photo is pleasant to look at as it makes you feel like that, that
is your bedroom & your looking out into an amazing view as the background
subject of the photo. It makes you feel like you are in two places at once.
What is the purpose?
For the photo itself, unfortunately I cannot fully tell if
the photograph has a purpose or it does not; but to my guess, I would say it
has something along the lines of a sense of reality of some kind. I have also
done some research whether as to or not the photo does, as I previously
mentioned, have a deeper meaning than first glance. I have found that, through
my research, that Abelardo Morell has stated when conduction photos as such
like this, and I quote, “I love the increased sense of reality that outdoor has
in these new works. The marriage of the outside and the inside is now made up
of more equal partners”; so, with that if I was to take another stab at what
the purpose means, or if what Morell is meaning is that, with this photo, he
wants to create a new sense of reality for people by bringing the wonders of
the outside world to the inside, so that people can get a new perspective on
their surroundings or to create a new way for people to see the world through
their eyes. Kind of like how I had
previously stated, but that is just my opinion on what the purpose could be.
Who made it?
From my research, I have been to find out when the photo was
taken, the name of the photo & who took/produced the photo; although the
artist who took the photo is obvious.
Artist name: Abelardo Morell
Date of production: 2009 (actual day & month unclear)
Name of photo: View of the Brooklyn bridge in bedroom
References
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