Camera Obscura Image of the Grand Tetons in Resort Room
Abelardo Morell
American, born Cuba, 1948
Details
Title
Camera Obscura Image of the Grand Tetons in Resort Room
Artist/Maker
Abelardo Morell (American, born Cuba, 1948)
Date
1997
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Contact the museum for more information
Credit
Purchase with funds from the H. B. and Doris Massey Charitable Trust
Accession #
2002.279
Location
Currently not on view
This photograph demonstrates the basic scientific principles of a camera obscura: if a lens or aperture is placed in one side of a completely dark chamber, it will select and focus the rays of light from the outside to create an inverted image of the external scene projected onto a surface opposite to the chamber. Morell’s "Camera Obscura" series features many surreal scenes such as skyscrapers inverted on New York hotel room walls, but this view of the rugged Grand Tetons landscape projected upside-down into the safe and bland bedroom, carefully centered on a small elk statue, is an especially playful and ironic commentary on the way we inhabit, experience, and photograph the natural landscape.
Image Copyright
© Abelardo Morell.