"Camera obscura "
by Marja Pirila (Leuku’s member)
The camera obscura phenomenon, at once simple and magical, never ceases to fascinate me. I have worked with it intensely ever since 1996. For me camera obscura is a method by which to survey the living environment and
#mental_landscapes, summoning
#subconscious feelings into the light of day.
In camera obscura darkness, silence and slowness compel one to contemplate the world in a novel way, from new angles. When the space transforms into a ”dark room” it conjures up the core and magic of photography again and again. That is when I feel most acutely that I am working with light.
The idea in embarking on the #Interior/Exterior project was a nocturnal inspiration after seeing some black-and-white images of Abelardo Morell in a photo magazine. In the room converted into a camera obscura I could capture an image of a person and at the same time that person’s room and the view from the #window – what an all-encompassing method by which to photograph a person’s living environment!
The originally documentary idea soon expanded in a new direction. The pictures began to form not only a person’s living environment but also to constitute an excursion into the mental landscape: reflections of memories, reveries, fears and dreams.
Working on this series was for me like taking photographs for a family album: visitations to #people and also to myself. To take the pictures I transform people’s rooms into camera obscura by covering the windows of the room with blackout plastic and placing on top of the hole cut in it a simple #convex_lens. Then the view outside the window is reflected upside down into the room forming a dreamy layered space. This and the occupant of the room I then photographed with a conventional camera.
At first I used roll film cameras, nowadays a digital camera. The printing techniques also changed in the course of the project: from the chromogenic color prints of the early years to the present prints on rag and fibre paper with permanent pigments.
Interior/Exterior is the most extensive and long-lasting project accomplished with the #camera_obscura method. So far I have photographed this series in #Finland, Norway, Italy and France, and the work continues.
— Marja Pirilä
▻https://www.lensculture.com/marja-pirila?modal=true&modal_type=project&modal_project_id=25376
#leuku #photograpy #photo #photographie #Marja_Pirilä #leuku_photo_agency