Looking at the night sky

There are two series of images in this exhibition: Series # 1: Images 4 – 9 Astronomical observatories in different countries and telescopes which have made some important discoveries in science of astronomy. These images were taken with simple primitive camera including a homemade toy camera and a Holga pinhole camera. The toy camera use a simple plastic lens and film. It produces a very softly focused and blurred image. The Holga Pinhole camera has a panoramic format and also uses film. (The pinhole camera has no lens and only a very small pinhole to lets the light into the camera to produce a simple image) For me the limited resolution of these primitive cameras invoke a sense of wonder, mystery and imagination which the ancient observers must have experienced when looking at the night sky. Series # 2: Images 1 – 3 and 9 - 14 presents individual celestial objects including, the planet Saturn, the Moon, the Sun, a comet and a Star Cluster. All these images have been re-photographed through a number of large primitive lenses. Some are hand made glass lenses and others are hollow and filled with water. These primitive lenses distort and stretch the images and represent the way in which the lens and (the telescope) have changed our vision of the cosmos. They also represent the subjectivity of the lens, something that all photographers know about - just because we see something through a lens, does not mean that all has been revealed and that what finally perceive is both a combination of what we see and what we feel inside and our imagination. The toy and pinhole camera images were made during a 5 year period starting in 2010 and up to 2015. The second series have all been made during 2015.