Articles tagged with: In Light and Darkness

  • Visual Arts students build camera obscura at Walker School

    (Source: The Brock NewsWednesday, November 23, 2016 | by Alison Innes. Photo caption: Brock Visual Arts students work to build a camera obscura in front of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.)

    Constructing a large outdoor camera has given Brock Visual Arts students a freeze frame of photography techniques of the past.

    As part of the Walker Cultural Leader Series, 40 students from Prof. Amy Friend’s Camera and Darkroom Process Photography course and Candace Bodanski’s Baroque Art and Architecture course worked to build a three metre by three metre camera obscura in front of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts in downtown St. Catharines

    The camera obscura gave students an opportunity to experience an early form of photograph making.

    “Their interactions with the structure coerced new methodologies and much trial and error to achieve a successful photograph,” Friend says.

    After working with New York artist Liz Sales and Friend to build the camera, the students used it for about a month to produce photographs.

    The result is a new exhibit at the downtown Brock opening Thursday, Nov. 24.

    The term camera obscura was coined in the early 17th century and means “a darkened room.” The device works on similar principles to a pinhole camera. A dark room or tent with a small hole in one side allows light to pass into the darkened space and create an image of an object. This image can be captured on photographic paper or by drawing.

    Making the structure light-tight was a challenge, requiring students to hand stitch the black-out material directly onto the structure so wind couldn’t lift the fabric and allow light to leak in and interfere with the exposure of the silver gelatin paper during production.

    Friend said that she witnessed some hesitancy with the new structure at first, as it disrupts modern understanding of what a photographic capture is.

    “As a practitioner,” she said, “I love that reaching into the vaults of history reveals new ways of seeing and thinking. Students pushed their experiments with impressive results.”

    Other Brock Visual Arts classes also interacted with the camera obscura while two high school classes visited the project and attended a workshop with Sales and Friend in which they engaged with the camera and darkroom facilities to produce photographs.

    In Light and Darkness: A Camera Obscura Project with Artist Liz Sales and Brock Visual Arts Students runs until Dec. 9 in the MIWSFPA Art Gallery, and also features work from Sales’ own camera obscura series The Weather Inside. An opening reception and artist talk by Sales will be held Thursday, Nov. 24 from 6-7 p.m. in MW151 at the downtown campus.

    Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
    Categories: In the Media, News

  • Brock students team with NY photographer

    (Source: St. Catharines Standard, Monday, November 21, 2016 | by John Law. Photo caption: An image from photographer Liz Sales’ series The Weather Inside. CREDIT: Liz Sales / Submitted)

    New York photographer Liz Sales will team with Brock University Visual Arts students for a camera project opening Nov. 22.

    In Light and Darkness will spotlight the results of a ‘camera obscura’ collaboration on the grounds of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts in downtown St. Catharines.

    Prior to an opening reception Nov. 24, Sales will host an artist’s talk at 6 p.m. in the school’s Foundation Studio (MW 151).

    “(Liz) has a knowledge base that’s quite extensive,” says Department of Visual Arts assistant professor Amy Friend. “And she’s quite adventurous. She doesn’t have a traditional set of what is expected, and I thought that would be really useful for the students.”

    Sales currently teaches at the International Center of Photography. Her work focuses on the relationship between perception and technology, and is seen in several photo-based magazines.

    Friend was already familiar with Sales’ work when the photographer contacted her two years ago for a magazine interview. She knew her unpredictable style and methods were ideal for Brock’s visual arts students.

    “She’s definitely an experimenter, which was really important to bringing her to work with the students. She has a background in motion picture cameras, and also builds her own cameras by hand to shoot her photographs.”

    In addition to student work, the show will feature selections from Sales’ camera obscura series The Weather Inside.

    Camera obscura is the optical result of an image projected through a small hole, seen as reversed and inverted.

    Friend says the students built a ten-by-ten foot tent with blackout material as an exterior darkroom for the project. It’s located directly in front of the Marilyn I. Walker school.

    “There’s quirks whenever you’re building something new in a different place, so it teaches them not only about the construction and function of the camera, but also the learning that happens along the way for everyone.”

    jlaw@postmedia.com

    • WHO: Liz Sales and Brock Visual Arts Students
    • WHAT: In Light and Darkness
    • WHEN: Nov. 22 to Dec. 9
    • WHERE: Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts; 15 Artists’ Common; St. Catharines

    Tags: , , , , , , , ,
    Categories: In the Media, News

  • Camera Obscura Project hits Marilyn I. Walker School – In Light and Darkness on display Nov. 22-Dec. 9

    (Source: Niagara This Week, Wednesday, November 16, 2016)

    ST. CATHARINES — What happens when Brock University visual arts students work alongside a celebrated New York photographer? A special collaborative gallery show.

    In Light and Darkness: A Camera Obscura Project will hang at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts’ art gallery from Nov. 22 to Dec. 9, featuring the work of Brock’s visual arts students along with photos from Liz Sales’ camera obscura series The Weather Inside. Camera Obscura, sometimes referred to as a pinhole image, is a natural optical phenomenon that occurs when light from an external scene passes through a device – usually a box – and strikes a surface inside, reproducing the scene inverted and reverse while preserving the colour and perspective.

    As part of the Walker Cultural Leader Series, students from Brock participated in a workshop with Sales, a New York artist from the International Centre for Photography. The students worked with Sales to construct a camera obscura for the production of their work on the grounds of the downtown performing arts school. The work being displayed as part of the series is the students’ response to those workshops. An artist talk is taking place Nov. 24 from 6-7 p.m. in Foundation Studio at the school, with the opening reception to follow from 7-9 p.m. The art gallery is located at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at 15 Artists’ Common. Gallery hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 1-5 p.m.

    Tags: , , , , , , ,
    Categories: In the Media, News