Street View of the camera obscura installation on Chambers Street. Concept, design, and fabricated by artist, architect, and poet Troels Steenholdt Heiredal

Street View of the camera obscura installation.

MULTIPLE EXPOSURE
IN REAL TIME

2014 // TRIBECA [NYC]

Multiple Exposure in Real Time [MERT] is a multi-lensed camera obscura and darkroom. I was working intensively on two parallel photo-oriented tracks—room-sized camera obscura, and multiple exposure film photography—but it wasn’t until reflecting upon this project that I fully understood what I had done. I had scaled up the camera to the point where I was able to inhabit the multiple overlaid image and to experience what happens inside the camera over a period of time. 

At Front Art Space in TriBeCa NYC, I built a camera obscura (a big black box, with a small hole with a lens in front, making it act as a camera. But rather than only having one lens I had three, which via mirrors on the inside all projected to the same surface where they created a multiple exposed image, in real time.

During the two weeks I was working in the camera, I had a sign on the exterior to invite passersby in and experience it. It was marvelous to see the expressions on people’s faces as we played with the framings and talked about why we see different things in these images and what the city is. A simple box with some holes and lenses enabled the audience to stop and spend time contemplating the simple gesture of looking across the street.

I had set up the back of the camera as a darkroom and started to experiment with creating silver gelatin prints inside the camera, see a selection here.

The project is quite complex so I have made a film describing it, see below. A special 3min cut of the film was accepted to Archishorts, an Architecture + Design Film Festival in Winnipeg, [Can], and won best analog film.

Conceptual sketch of the camera obscura. Concept, design, and fabrication by artist, architect, and poet Troels Steenholdt Heiredal

Conceptual sketch of the camera obscura

Plan of camera obscura in active position, rolled into Chambers Street. Concept, design, and fabrication by artist, architect, and poet Troels steenholdt Heiredal

Plan of camera obscura in active position, rolled into Chambers Street

Section of camera obscura in active position, rolled into Chambers Street. Concept, design, and fabrication by artist, architect, and poet Troels Steenholdt Heiredal

Section of camera obscura in active position, rolled into Chambers Street

Street view of the camera obscura in active position rolled into the Chambers Street. Concept, design, and fabrication by artist, architect, and poet Troels Steenholdt Heiredal

Street view of the camera obscura in active position rolled into the Chambers Street.

Juxtaposed exterior and interior view of the position of the three lenses on the camera. Concept, design, and fabrication by Artist, Architect, and Fabricator Troels Steenholdt Heiredal

Juxtaposed exterior and interior view of the position of the three lenses on the camera.

Street view of the Multiple Exposure in Real Time camera on Chambers Street, NYC. Concept, design, and fabrication by artist, architect, and poet Troels Steenholdt Heiredal

Street view of the Multiple Exposure in Real Time camera on Chambers Street, NYC.

Still image from film, exploring the ability to bend the image inside the camera obscura. Concept, design, and fabrication by artist, architect, and fabricator, Troels Steenholdt Heiredal

Still image from film, exploring the ability to bend the image inside the camera obscura.

Still image from film, showing the translucent screen being unrolled inside the camera obscura. Concept, design, and fabrication by artist, architect, and fabricator, Troels Steenholdt Heiredal

Still image from film, showing the translucent screen being unrolled inside the camera obscura.

Still image from film, showing a hand pushing the projected image on the screen inside the camera obscura.. Concept, design, and fabrication by artist, architect, and fabricator, Troels Steenholdt Heiredal

Still image from film, showing a hand pushing the projected image on the screen inside the camera obscura.

Still image from film, showing the white of a truck passing by becoming a temporary screen for the parallel lens to show a person walking down the street. Concept, design, and fabrication by artist, architect, and poet, Troels Steenholdt Heiredal

Still image from film, showing the white of a truck passing by becoming a temporary screen for the parallel lens to show a person walking down the street.

Still image from film, showing Troels Steenholdt Heiredal lifting the projected image, by liften the screen inside the camera obscura. Concept, design, and fabrication by artist, architect, fabricator, and poet Troels Steenholdt Heiredal

Still image from film, showing Troels Steenholdt Heiredal lifting the projected image, by liften the screen inside the camera obscura.

Still image from film, showing a notebook opened inside the camera obscura, moving it around the space captures different parts of the projection. Concept, design, and fabrication by artist, architect, fabricator, and poet Troels Steenholdt Heiredal

Still image from film, showing a notebook opened inside the camera obscura, moving it around the space captures different parts of the projection.

Digital photo of the mirror that would reflect the lens parallel to the street into the camera. Concept, design, and fabrication, by artist, architect, and poet Troels Steenholdt Heiredal

Digital photo of the mirror that would reflect the lens parallel to the street into the camera.

Digital photos of details from the camera. The door jamb securing the black-out fabric entrance and the black-out fabric skirt ensured light would not enter from below. Photo also shows the wheel, enabling the camera to move. Artist Troels Heiredal

Digital photos of details from the camera. The door jamb securing the black-out fabric entrance and the black-out fabric skirt ensured light would not enter from below. The second photo also shows the wheel, enabling the camera to be driven in and out of the gallery space.