Abelardo Morell’s camera obscura technique has taken him from photographing his own living room to interiors across the globe. “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”,  he says. In setting up a room to make this kind of photograph he covers all windows with plastic in order to achieve total darkness. Then he cuts one small hole in the materials that he uses to cover the windows. An inverted image of the view outside then floods onto the walls in the room. He focuses the large-format camera on the incoming image on the wall and exposes the film.
Morell recently designed a light proof tent that, via periscope type optics, makes it possible to project a view of the nearby landscape onto whatever ground is under the tent. Inside this darkened space he uses a view camera to record the effect. He says, “I think it is a rather wonderful sandwich of two outdoor realities coming together. This Tent-Camera now liberates me to use camera obscura techniques in a world of new places. I now have a portable room, so to speak.”

Currently Morell’s work is on view in the exhibition, Groundwork, at the Bonni Benrubi Gallery and another exhibition, The Universe Next Door, at the Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery.

Time Square, New York.

Brooklyn Bridge.

Photographed with a tent camera on a rooftop capturing the view of midtown Manhattan looking East.

Jordon Pond in Acadia National Park, Maine.

Tent camera image of landscape outside Florence.

View of the outskirts of Florence, with books.

Bedroom view of Florence looking northwest.

Voetganger No. 017, 2008 © Gus Powell

In 1609 Henry Hudson discovered Manhattan Island for the Dutch, founding their New World colony. To celebrate the 400th anniversary, New York photographers Joshua Lutz, Gus Powell, Richard Rothman and Carl Wooley were each commissioned last year to explore a different aspect of Amsterdam: the outskirts, the street, and the night. The photographers were not only struck by Amsterdam’s small scale and peacefulness—but also by more subtle things such as the transparency of the Dutch houses with their big windows, which give every passer-by a glimpse into the private world of the inhabitants. The resulting images reveal an unknown side of the Dutch capital. A selection of photographs by Lutz, Powell and Wooley will be exhibited in the New York City premier of NY Perspectives: Amsterdam discovered by NY Photographers on view at 25CPW, May 8–17. An artist reception will be held on Tuesday, May 11th, 6–9pm.

All photos © Tim Grimshaw

Above: The Empire State Building in New York City as viewed from the top of Rockefeller Center.

All of these photos were taken with a tilt/shift lens to control the depth of field. View more of Tim Grimshaw’s Manhattan series here.

Park Avenue.

The Flatiron building.

Central Park.

Traffic approaching the Queensboro Bridge.

© Leandro Badalotti. Badalotti is a photographer based in Caxias do Sul, Brazil.

© Joseph Holmes. Photographed looking down on West 43 St. in New York in July.

© Time Inc.

Statue of Liberty, New York, 1930, photographed by Margaret Bourke-White is included in New York Photographs …The Statue of Liberty, featuring works by Bruce Davidson, Margaret Bourke-White, Susan McCartney, Lou Stoumen, Mole & Thomas, Seneca Ray Stoddard, Louis Stettner, Nathan Harger, Paolo Ventura. On exhibit through August 28 at Hasted Hunt, 529 West 20th Street, NYC.