A Survey of Photographer Abelardo Morell's Optic Experiments at the Getty Museum

Abelardo Morell has spent the past few decades exploring the limits of photography, creating radical perspectives, and infusing the medium with a sense of wonder. A retrospective at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, "The Universe Next Door" (previously at the Art Institute of Chicago), pays homage to 25 years of innovative work by the Cuban-born artist. Among his optic experiments are photographs that employ a contemporary twist on camera obscura. By covering the windows of his apartment or various hotel rooms with black plastic and cutting a small hole in the material, Morell projects huge images of buildings and landscapes outside into the spaces he inhabits. In Camera Obscura: View of the Brooklyn Bridge in Bedroom, for example, the Brooklyn Bridge and the skyline of downtown Manhattan wash over the walls surrounding an unmade bed, creating a veritable dreamscape that blurs the distinction between interior and exterior.

30 September 2013