Final Major Project - Exhibition Trips

The Photographer's Gallery:

Presentation at the Photographer's Galley - Author's Own

To start my research into pre-cinema animation devices I visited several galleries. The first was the photographer's gallery to see their camera obscura installation, amoung other exhibitions. The camera obscura is an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen. It was used in drawing and for entertainment, and was one of the inventions that led to photography and the camera. The device consists of a box or room with a hole in one side. Light from an passes through the hole and strikes a surface inside, where it is reproduced and rotated 180 degrees
but with colour and perspective preserved.

All images above Author's own, showing camera obscura in action reflecting part of Ramillies Street. The origins of this device can be traced to around 400 BCE and it is to this invention that all modern photography can be traced as it is the first instance where the ideas of capturing light to duplicate and retain an image.

 While at the Photographer's Gallery I also looked at their other exhibitions, including works by Andy Warhol and David Lynch. However, the one that particularly caught my eye was the work of William S. Burroughs.

' I drifted along taking shots when I could score. I ended up hooked' - Burroughs 1954. 

What struck me about his work was the use of narrative and storytelling in the static image. For example, seen below is a sequence of photographs depicting a bus crash in New York in 1965. What I like about this work is the sporadic way in which the event, or 'story' is revealed. The information is disjointed, as a person looking a around the seen and taking in everything at once would see it.

New York Bus Crash - 1965: as displayed in the Photographer's gallery. Photo is Author's own. 

Another example of narrative in Burrough's Work can be seen below as he photographs his bed before and after a sexual encounter. I really like the poignant simplicity in these images and the way in which it conveys a story beyond what we can see in the photos. These ideas of narrative I feel they are relevant in the use of pre-cinema animation devices as they all suggest some movement or story beyond what is shown. Therefore I hope that it will be possible for me to carry this theme through into my final project.

Series Entitles 'What Was, What Isn't' by William S. Burroughs - as displayed in The Photographer's Gallery

While gathering initial research for my project I also visited the science museum and looked at their exhibition about the 'making of the modern world' which has displays of all sorts of pre-cinema devices. This was very useful for understanding the devices on a technical level and that will form a good foundation for my further research:

World's First Camera

Collection of Stereoscopes, a Magic Lantern Project
and other pre-cinema devices