Go into a very dark room on a bright day and cover all windows. Make a small whole. What you’ll see, is MAGIC.
Camera Obscura photographer
Abelardo Morell
Graphic Design by Natacha Bevers uitgeverij A formaat
What made me an artist quote from Leonardo Da Vinci about the pinhole camera or “camera obscura” Camera Obscura, How Abelardo Morell does it All sorts of interiors around the world Magically disorienting results The use of color Bibliography
Bibliography The use of color Magically disorienting results All sorts of interiors around the world Morell does it Camera Obscura, How Abelardo hole camera or “camera obscura” quote from Leonardo Da Vinci about the pinWhat made me an artist
What made me an artist I left Cuba with my parents and my sister when I was 14 in 1962. This break with the place where I grew up is probably still stirring at the bottom of much of what I do in art now. Somehow the conflicts of cultures, languages and places that I felt didn’t just scare me, these things also gave me a sense of exhilaration, a feeling that things out there were wild and surreal. My parents’ wonderul courage and hope in the midst of starting a new life from scratch, I know now, gave me the security to look at the strangeness all around me from a somewhat safe place.
Because I didn’t spoke English when I first came, looking and seeing became a way to get to know and make impressions of my new country. I arrived in Brunswick at a time when Bowdoin was actively reaching out to diversify its student population. I was recruited out of a Manhatten technical high school. I knew back then that bowdoin was taking a chance on me. I thought Iwas going to be an electrical engineer but after one week in John McKee’s photography class, I knew I wanted to be an artist. One teacher’s lessons in how art could be a way of seeing and at the same time, a way to discover oneself, are lessons that have stayed with me to this day. Photography was so perfectly suited to my sensibility and situation, it gave me a voice, a kind of crazy, outof-whack voice, at the beginning but a voice. I could finally put into images bottled up feelings of absurdity and alienation -and also joy and delight.
Being married to Lisa and having my son Brady and my daughter Laura have had the deepest effect on my continuing to be an artist. Without them and their support, even when things were not going well, I think I would have kept making other people’s pictures - probably nothing to write home about. Being in a family taught my eyes to pay attention to the things close to me, things close to my heart. the pictures I made around the house when I first became a father have influenced much of the work that I do today - from looking at a book with the curiosity of a child to turning ordinary rooms into giant cameras. I finally got the point that art is about playing. Thankfully, I’m not the only artist that Bowdoin has helped educate.
story by Abelardo Morell May 24, 1997
Many dancers, painters, musicians and photographers like me got their start at this college and now show their work all over the world. Learning what pictures are about in the context of a liberal arts education had a powerful effect on my life. The importance of locating art within life and its many disciplines is something lasting that I got out of my time here. Standing here in line with the Moulton Union, where I made my first photographs in the old college darkroom almost thirty years ago, and the Museum of Art in back of me where totday, they have kindly hung one of my most recent pictures, I feel like I am in some kind of special alignment. Rarely does one see such clear shape and direction in one’s life, especially if you are a graduating senior and the territory ahead may not be so defined. In my case, I think that maybe perseverance, being in love with something for the long run had a lot to do with why I’m here today. Standing between these two building, which are like bookends to the story of my life so far, reminds me of the promise and power of art to make us believe in the possibilities and openness of life, at least for a moment, like this moment now.
“Who would believe that so small universe? O mighty process! What these? What tongue will it be that This it is that guides the human d Here the figures, here the colors, her
are contracted to a point.
-- Leo
“Who would believe that so small a space could contain the image of all the universe? O mighty process! What talent can avail to penetrate a nature such as these? What tongue will it be that can unfold so great a wonder? Verily, none! This it is that guides the human discourse to the considering of divine things. Here the figures, here the colors, here all the images of every part of the universe are contracted to a point. O what a point is so marvelous!� -- Leonardo Da Vinci
Camera Obscura How Abelardo Morell does it
Abelardo Morell’s first picture using camera obscura was in a darkened living room in 1991. In setting up a room to make this kind of photograph, he covers all windows with black plastic in order to achieve total darkness. Then, he cuts a small hole in the material he uses to cover the windows. This allows an inverted image of the view outside to flood onto te walls of the room. Abelardo Morell would focus his 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 him from his living room to all sorts of interiors around the world. One of the statisfactions he gets from making this imagery comes from his seeing the weird and yet natural marrage of the inside and outside.
“Eight-hour exposures of ups world cast across their varied floors, but furniture, appliance domestic life.�
side-down views of the outside surfaces -- not just walls and es and other appurtenances of R.H., “The Best Photo Books of the Year,� American Photo
ALL SORTS OF INTERIORS
Empire State - New York
Manhatten South
AROUND THE WORLD
Manhatten West
Times Square - New York
Pantheon - Italy
St Louis - Missouri
Umbrian landscape
“Abelardo Morell had distinguished himself in the ‘90s as an artist of unique technical elegance and resourcefullness. Not only has he taken startling pictures unlike any others in the history of photography, but he has done so within the confines of a ‘straight’ aesthetic, without resorting to the stale tricks of surrealist collage or computerized postmodern manipulation.” -- Richard Woodward
“One of the satisfaction imagery comes from m yet natural marriage of
ns I get from making this my seeing the weird and the inside and outside� Abelardo Morell
The use of color A few years ago, In order to push the visual potential of this process, Abelardo Morell 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, Abelardo Morell uses often a prism to make the projection com in right side up. He has also been able to shorten his 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.� -- Abelardo Morell
Where Galileo died
Olive tree
Sources
Jungle
“Although we may have been taught not to judge a book by its cover, photographer Abelardo Morell reverses the old saying and delightfully shows us how to relish a book by its look. This inventive and clever photographic ode to the printed word captures all the powerful possibilities contained on the page.� -- J.P. Cohen, Amazon.com
Bibliography Press New York, 2002 Baker N., “A book of books”, Bulfinch Press New York, 2004 Sante L., “Camera obscura”, Bulfinch Press London graphs”, TF Editores Spain , Phaidon Woodward R., “Abelardo Morell Monohttp://www.abelardomorell.net/
Bibliography http://www.abelardomorell.net/ Woodward R., “Abelardo Morell Monographs”, TF Editores Spain , Phaidon Press London Sante L., “Camera obscura”, Bulfinch Press New York, 2004 Baker N., “A book of books”, Bulfinch Press New York, 2002
Abelardo Morell’s photographs remind us that photography is more about how we see than the tools we use to create it. Graphic Design by Natacha Bevers uitgeverij A formaat
A