Abelardo Morell
“I just love the idea inherent in the process where, naturally the Outside and the Inside meet each other in a strange marriage.”
Abelardo Morell: Camera Obscura 1991-2006
Abelardo Morell is a Cuban-American photographer, born in Havana in 1948, best known for this experimental approaches to photography as his exploration of how we perceive the world around us. Much of his work involves transforming familiar subjects and environments into something unexpected, encouraging viewers to reconsider their understanding of ordinary spaces.
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Rather than relying heavily on digital manipulation, Morell often uses traditional photographic techniques to create surreal images that challenge the boundaries between reality and illusion.
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One of Morrel's most recognised bodies of work is his Camera Obscura series, which he began in 1991. The project involves transforming entire rooms into camera obscuras, allowing the outdoor environment to be projected directly onto the walls, furniture, and objects within an interior space.
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To achieve this, Morell covers the windows of a room with black plastic, blocking out all external light. He then creates a small opening through which light can enter, projecting an inverted image of the outside world onto the opposite walls and surfaces much like a pinhole camera.
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His work encourages viewers to reconsider familiar environments by presenting them from unexpected perspectives, revealing the surprisingly natural relationship between inside and outside. His photographs explore the boundaries of physical space and visual perception, demonstrating how two separate environments can coexist and create something entirely different through their interaction.
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I find this series particularly relevant to my project because it explores the connection between indoor and outdoor environments in a way that is both physical and visual. The rooms retain their original features, but the projected landscapes, buildings, and streets completely transform how they are perceived. This suggests that an environment is not necessarily defined only by its physical boundaries, but also by its relationship with the world surrounding and the context in which it exists in.
Something I find especially interesting is how the objects within Morell's interiors interact with the projected outdoor scenes. Rather than viewing the room simply as a surface for the projection, the images allow viewers to notice individual objects such as beds, chairs, kids toys, and other personal belongings. These details suggest human presence and invite the viewer to imagine who might occupy the space, what their relationship with it might be, and how the outdoor environment contributes to that story.
Abelardo Morell, Camera Obscura: Image of Brookline View in Brady’s Room, 1992.
This photograph in particular speaks to a narrative being constructed through interior objects with children's toys scattered across the floor. These objects immediately suggest that the room belongs to or is used by a child, introducing a sense of human presence despite nobody actually appearing in the image. From these details alone, I can start to imagine the person and stories associated with this space.
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The projection of the outdoor spaces also introduces another layer of meaning. The surrounding houses and trees appear visually merging with the child's private, familiar environment. I find this to create a contrast between the miniature world represented by the toys and the full-sized buildings being projected. The toys could represent a child's imagination and their understanding of the world, while the outdoors introduces a sense of reality beyond their immediate surroundings on a much bigger scale. However, it could also be seen as quite a nostalgic scene, with the outdoor environment being perceived as someone's childhood home and street, allowing us to connect in that way.
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I also find it interesting how much the two environments influence my interpretation of one another. Without the projection, I might simply see an ordinary child's room, but the presence of the outdoors encourages me construct a more complex narrative about childhood, imagination, familiarity, and the relationship between a person's private world and the world beyond it.
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This connects to my wider interest in how we form psychological connections with environments and how our interpretations are influenced by context, memory, and personal experience. Morell's photographs encourage me to look beyond the individual subjects within an image and consider how their relationships contribute to its overall meaning.
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His work has made me consider how I could experiment with the physical interaction between indoor and outdoor environments in my own photography. I am interested in using natural light, shadows, reflections, and framing to explore how one space can visually influence another. I could experiment with creating my own camera obscura inspired by his work, i could also experiment with this style in a digital sense, using photoshop and other platforms to create work inspired by these images. Ultimately, I want to consider how objects and traces of human presence within these spaces can encourage viewers to construct their own narratives, allowing the connection between environments to become both visual and psychological through different details.