Comments on: wide-eyed camera obscura

wide-eyed camera obscura

megob — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:34:20 -0800

Every week, two holes are released. The cardboard camera obscura they belong to travels from one participant of the project to the next, both take their picture on the same sheet of film, juxtaposing (and partly blending) two places somewhere in the world. Over the weeks and years, in an ongoing and potentially infinite process, a collective world-wide photographic artwork is arising: Camera Obscura 1-∞ (paying homage, as the artists state, to Roman Opalka's lifelong project "Counted Paintings: 1965 / 1 – ∞"). It offers some exquisite binocularism with fairly wide eye-distance: New York/Berlin; Leipzig/Cologne; Melbourne/Stuttgart.

By: kenko

kenko — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:11:53 -0800

No comments? This is really nifty.

By: JoeXIII007

JoeXIII007 — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:43:28 -0800

^ Word. (2 comments and counting)

By: taz

taz — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:17:55 -0800

Wow! This is so wonderful. I'm not sure I totally understand how it's organized via ebay, etc., but it's a stunningly beautiful project. Thanks so much for this post!

By: megob

megob — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:56:53 -0800

not sure I totally understand how it's organized I realized later that I was a bit sparse on information. The point with this project, as I see it, is that anyone can take part, not some obscure group of "participants" as could seem from my words. The holes are put on auction on ebay, the two winners take their pictures with the same camera, which is forwarded from one person to the next, than back to the organizers. Despite ebay being involved as a platform, the project is non-profit, at least I hope so. Furthermore, a link got mixed up. Leipzig/Cologne is here.

By: taz

taz — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 06:19:08 -0800

I love the Leipzig/Cologne pick! I saw it when perusing the gallery, and thought about pointing it out... you should contact jessamyn and ask her to fix that link for you. :) I do understand a bit more about the ebay method now, though I have to confess I'm a bit annoyed by the people who buy both "halves" and just repeat the same image (and, to a lesser degree, those who buy both halves or arrange with friends to get both in order to impose a specific structure or symmetry)... though know (I'm pretty sure, anyway) I should be looser and more zen about these interpretations of the original idea. :)

By: megob

megob — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 07:24:46 -0800

you should contact jessamyn Thanks for the hint! : ) The link is already fixed. And yes - just doubling the picture seems a bit insipid to me as well. Unexpected constellations are much better.

By: YoBananaBoy

YoBananaBoy — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 11:41:25 -0800

Thanks for the post, megob.

By: w0mbat

w0mbat — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:56:39 -0800

That's not a camera obscura, that's a pinhole camera. A camera obscura projects onto a screen, not a piece of film, and can have either a pin hole or a lens. Camera obscuras predate photography and do not take photographs.