Indie Photobook Library » Visions In The Dark

Visions In The Dark – Camera Obscura

Title: Visions In The Dark – Camera Obscura

Photographer/s: Charles Schwartz
Bill Westheimer

Contributor/s: essay by Gail Buckland
afterword by Jennie Hirschfeld
digital image prep by Meghann Lyding

Date of publication: 2005

Place of publication: New York, NY

Dimensions: 8.5″ h x 10.25″ w x .125″ d

Edition size: 1000

Type of binding: softcover, stapled

Number of pages: 18

Type of paper: heavy matte paper

Number of pictures: 20

Type of printing: offset 5/c

Printer: The Hennegan Company, Cincinnati, OH

Designer: Beverly Joel, Pulp Inc.

Editor: Mary W. Caron

Language: English

Category: exhibition catalog

Price: $15

Summary: Charles Schwartz and Bill Westheimer collaborated to digitally photograph the surrealistic, dynamic, and detailed view of New York as seen from the camera obscura. The camera obscura project combines pre photographic camera obscura with 21st century digital capture technology. Charles and Bill photographed views of Central Park and Upper Manhattan for over three years.

The resulting pigment based digital prints show the compressed perspective and moving reality that only the camera obscura produces. The subject matter includes New York City landscape, street scenes and architecture, views of Central Park, as well as conceptual images. The work is captivating for its unique perspective, combining aspects of landscape photography with surveillance and conceptual art, and making reference to historical views of the city.

There are four bodies of work:
Survey The cityscape of New York
Surveillance Voyeuristic views of the activities of New Yorkers
Sun Using the direct image Sun as the subject
Surface Images incorporating bodies and objects placed on the table

Charles Schwartz built a camera obscura in his home in New York City, 15 stories above Central Park. The camera obscura was designed specifically to function as a modern camera. It is outfitted with a very high-quality lens that can rotate and aim up and down and includes a fine focusing mechanism. The digital camera photographs the images projected by the camera obscura onto a 42” diameter table.

Using the camera obscura Charles and Bill observe the city, isolating, framing and distorting the activities, light and landscape of New York to create an extraordinary view of the everyday.

Date and place of birth of photographer/s: 1938, New York; 1952, Cincinnati

Website: http://www.billwest.com

Book link: http://billwest.com/camera-obscura/

Donated by: Bill Westheimer

Related books:

Manual: The Personalities of Hands

Oddyssey: The Billiad

Momento: Capturing moments and memories

Published on October 13, 2011 3:21 pm.
Filed under: Books Tags: Bill Westheimer, Charles Schwartz

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The Indie Photobook Library is TWO!

This past weekend, the Indie Photobook Library celebrated its 2nd Anniversary. Thank you to all the photographers/artists/bookmakers that have made the collection what it is today! I’d also like to thank Advisory Board members Darius Himes, Andy Adams, Shane Lavalette, and Gabe Reed and all the venues that have welcomed the iPL. In the last two years, the collection has grown to almost 1000 books. The iPL continues to promote and showcase the books in the collection through international pop-up and feature-length exhibitions, articles, conferences, guest lectures, and also preserves them as a non-circulating public library. Having a specific collection dedicated to this contemporary movement in publishing allows for the development of future discourse on trends in self-publishing, the ability to reflect on and compare books in the collection, and for scholarly research to be conducted years, decades, and centuries to come. I am looking forward to continuing the iPL mission.

Cheers,
Larissa Leclair
Founder, Indie Photobook Library