Camera Obscura, View of Lower Manhattan, Sunrise, 2022
Camera Obscura- View of Central Park Looking West in Bedroom, Spring, 2019
Camera Obscura- View of Central Park Looking West in Bedroom, Summer, 2018
Camera Obscura- View of Central Park Looking West in Bedroom, Fall, 2020
Camera Obscura- View of Central Park Looking West in Bedroom, Winter, 2019
Camera Obscura- View of Manhattan from Financial District - Early Evening, 2019
Camera Obscura- View of the Florence Duomo inside big Room with Paintings On Wall at the Palazzo Strozzi Sacrati, Italy, 2017
Camera Obscura- View of the Florence Duomo in Tuscany President’s Office in Palazzo Strozzi Sacrati, Italy, 2017
Camera Obscura- View of Villa Entrance in Blue Gallery. Villa la Pietra, Florence, Italy, 2017
Camera Obscura- View of Hotel de Ville, Paris, France, 2015
Camera Obscura- Les Invalides On Curtains. Paris, France, 2016
Camera Obscura- Late Afternoon View of the East Side of Midtown Manhattan, 2014
Camera Obscura: Rockport Sunrise, 2009
Camera Obscura- Brooklyn Bridge, 2009
Camera Obscura- View of Central Park Looking North-Spring, 2010
Camera Obscura- Central Park Summer, 2008
Camera Obscura- Central Park Fall, 2008
Camera Obscura- View of Central Park Looking North-Winter, 2013
Camera Obscura- Palazzo Jungle Room, 2008
Camera Obscura- Santa Maria della Salute in Palazzo Bedroom, Venice, Italy, 2006
Camera Obscura- The Philadelphia Museum of Art East Entrance in Gallery #171 with a DeChirico Painting, 2005
Camera Obscura- Times Square in Hotel Room, 2010
Camera Obscura- Times Square in Hotel Room, 1997
Camera Obscura- El Vedado, Havana, Looking Northwest, 2002
Camera Obscura- Image of Boston’s Old Customs House in Hotel Room, 1999
Camera Obscura- The Empire State Building in Bedroom, 1994
Camera Obscura- View of Brookline in Brady's Room, 1992
Camera Obscura
I made my first picture using camera obscura techniques in my darkened living room in 1991. In setting up a room to make this kind of photograph, I cover all windows with black plastic in order to achieve total darkness. Then, I cut a small hole in the material I use to cover the windows. This opening allows an inverted image of the view outside to flood onto the back walls of the room. Typically then I focused my large-format camera on the incoming image on the wall then make a camera exposure on film. In the beginning, exposures took from five to ten hours.
Over time, this project has taken me from my living room to all sorts of interiors around the world. One of the satisfactions I get from making this imagery comes from my seeing the weird and yet natural marriage of the inside and outside.
Several years ago, in order to push the visual potential of this process, I began to use color film and positioned a lens over the hole in the window plastic in order to add to the overall sharpness and brightness of the incoming image. Now, I often use a prism to make the projection come in right side up. I have also been able to shorten my exposures considerably thanks to digital technology, which in turn makes it possible to capture more momentary light. I love the increased sense of reality that the outdoor has in these new works. The marriage of the outside and the inside is now made up of more equal partners.