Cool Photography

During our weekend gaunt through New York, we had a chance to visit some photography galleries. Photography, like birding, is one of those things I have a lot of interest in but know virtually nothing about. I'm one of those people who goes all in or not at all when it comes to an interest, so since I haven't taken the time to learn virtually everything about the craft, I have had to be content with learning virtually nothing. When I finally finish my MBA my plan is to buy an SLR and take that photography class I've always wanted to. And I want to learn Spanish too.

Anyway, I had bought New York magazine at Raleigh airport and leafed through it on our flight to into JFK. I usually like to fly into LaGuardia so I can catch a glimpse of my church, but I digress... New York had a listing of photography exhibits and I noticed that we could visit over 20 exhibits in a 10 block area. So, we decided to spend our Friday afternoon doing just that. Most of the exhibits one of us liked and the other didn't, and a few we both didn't like at all, but we were both impressed by the work of Abelardo Morell.

Morell's most notable works are camera obscura, where an entire room is essentially turned into a giant pinhole camera, with an upside down image of the outside world reflected onto the walls floors and ceilings of a room though a small opening of a blacked out window. The image is then captured on film with a camera using very long exposure times (8 hours or more). It's more interesting to see than explain:






A print of Morell's work will cost you between $3,000 and $20,000 but you can buy a book of his work here for $40 or you can gaze at them online for free here, or here. Visit these prints in person at one of these galleries. As for me, I'm going to borrow a book from the library on the technique and learn how to do it myself.