Abelardo Morell

Abelardo Morell's photographs of camera obscura images. The rooms are carefully blacked out and a pinhole made to expose the room to it's view. A long exposure (six hours etc) with a large format camera reveals the exterior overlaid on the interior. He leaves the interiors as they are, sometimes messy or under renovation, over decorated or spare. The rooms seem something of a metaphor for our own cluttered minds or the bagage onto which we project all images we see. These views, often famous, may also be "burnt" onto the identity of these rooms. Does having a view make a room into something of a camera in any case? Surreal and uncanny. A good essay here by Bonnie Costello that fittingly finds a reference to the work of Edward Hopper and de Chirico, where there is an equally ambiguous relationship between interior and exterior and time can also seem to stand still.......the fugitive intimacy of hotel rooms. Thanks to Hugh Campbell for the reference.