Abelardo Morell

        We were introduced to Abe Morell's work in my photography class last year to discuss his photographic adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and the way it breathes new life into a frequently illustrated book. The series is really cool, using book alterations with Sir John Tenniel's original illustrations for the story. The series begins to set up an idea of Morell's unusual perspective.
        Morell's body of work boasts everything from incredible photograms, curious images of crumpled dollar bills and wet newspapers, to sections of paintings in museums and altered books. All equally "normal" but from an angle not previously imagined; you are truly seeing through Morell's eyes. Possibly the most interesting of his works however, are his series using the camera obscura.
        For anyone who does not know, the camera obscura is an optical device that lead to the invention of photography, but was originally used for drawing. In short, light passes through a small hole (or sometimes a lens) in one side of a box, and is, by the physics of light, then projected upside down. For accurate perspective in drawings, the images would be projected onto a wall and traced, often with the camera obscura itself being a room or tent, so the artist would be inside. Another way to imagine it is as a giant pinhole camera. (In pinhole cameras the image is projected into a small box with film inside).
        Morell uses this science in the large scale fashion, filling interior spaces with the upside-down image of their exterior (his pinhole being in an otherwise blocked-out window, so the camera obscura becomes the entire room), and photographs the resulting overlapping images. The effect is immensely surreal and oftentimes dizzying. The first photographs (from the 90's) are in black and white, though he eventually moves to color, and in his most recent work, he flips the projected image (i imagine using mirrors) so that it is projected right-side-up.
        What's most interesting to me about the series, aside from the outstandingly surreal interior landscapes it yields, is Morell's tie of photography's history and his current work. Photography has always been very much about the process, and with our current technology and the absurd number of images we see every day, it's refreshing and eye-opening to see someone referencing the way it all began.

For more information on Morell as well as lots of images, check out his website. He currently teaches at MassArt, so maybe some day I'll get the opportunity to meet him(!).



images: abelardomorell.net