Thank you for your publication of my “architectural pinhole” of the Mies van der Rohe pavilon, on your blog. I propose here the English text to you who explains how this work was realized... Yours sincerely Jérôme Schlomoff. http://schlomoff.hautetfort.com/
The “Architectural Pinhole”
Historical background and summary explanation of the pinhole principle: The “architectural pinhole” is a project which I set up in 1996, upon the invitation of Mr. Lluis Hortet, director of the Mies van der Rohe Foundation in Barcelona.
It is within the framework of the eighth Primavera Fotografica de Barcelona that Mr. Lluis Hortet invited me to develop a photographic work around the pavilion Mies van der Rohe that might enhance the ties, which exist between architecture and photography. My answer to this invitation was, not to come and shoot photographs of the building, but to transform it into a camera.
Owing to the old process of camera osbcura, I was able to operate this mutation. To get the process started one must first blacken the architecture which becomes a dark room (camera obscura). Then it suffices to pierce a calibrated hole (pinhole) on each panel which is blocking the glass windows and to place a photosensitive surface (photographic paper) in front of it. The daylight penetrates inside the building through the hole and projects the outside image in reverse on the photosensitive surface. One only has to let the time necessary for the light to expose the negative correctly so as, then, to allow the positive printing by contact to be obtained. The disposition of this device allows me to show what the architect gives us to see through his work. The resulting images belong to his imagination. I am only his “assistant”; he is the one who imposes on me the choice of images, which I gather. Somehow he is the photographer.
Dear Fabrizio,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your publication of my “architectural pinhole” of the Mies van der Rohe pavilon, on your blog.
I propose here the English text to you who explains how this work was realized...
Yours sincerely
Jérôme Schlomoff.
http://schlomoff.hautetfort.com/
The “Architectural Pinhole”
Historical background and summary explanation of the pinhole principle: The “architectural pinhole” is a project which I set up in 1996, upon the invitation of Mr. Lluis Hortet, director of the Mies van der Rohe Foundation in Barcelona.
It is within the framework of the eighth Primavera Fotografica de Barcelona that Mr. Lluis Hortet invited me to develop a photographic work around the pavilion Mies van der Rohe that might enhance the ties, which exist between architecture and photography. My answer to this invitation was, not to come and shoot photographs of the building, but to transform it into a camera.
Owing to the old process of camera osbcura, I was able to operate this mutation. To get the process started one must first blacken the architecture which becomes a dark room (camera obscura). Then it suffices to pierce a calibrated hole (pinhole) on each panel which is blocking the glass windows and to place a photosensitive surface (photographic paper) in front of it. The daylight penetrates inside the building through the hole and projects the outside image in reverse on the photosensitive surface. One only has to let the time necessary for the light to expose the negative correctly so as, then, to allow the positive printing by contact to be obtained. The disposition of this device allows me to show what the architect gives us to see through his work. The resulting images belong to his imagination. I am only his “assistant”; he is the one who imposes on me the choice of images, which I gather. Somehow he is the photographer.
On the other hand, the gesture which I accomplish in order to transform the architecture into a camera is an architectural gesture in the sense that I modify, in an ephemeral way, the architectural aspect of his work by way of turning it into a black chamber. This meeting between architecture and photography in which roles become interchangeable, allows me to demonstrate the links between these two disciplines.
J.S. © 1996