Sleeping on a Cloud
I found this gem as I was going through my archive the other day. There is no Photoshop at work here; instead, this was done in a single shot, with me lying on a roll of white seamless paper inside of a camera obscura. Camera obscura, for the uninitiated, is the precedent and cornerstone of photography:
“A camera obscura (Latin: "dark chamber") is an optical device that led to photography and the camera. The device consists of a box or room with a hole in one side. Light from an external scene passes through the hole and strikes a surface inside, where it is reproduced, rotated 180 degrees (thus upside-down), but with color and perspective preserved.” - Wikipedia
This shot was inspired by the work of Abelardo Morrell, who travels the world using this technique to photograph interiors with scenic views projected inside them. I was introduced to his work during my last year in school, and I was instantly inspired. As a kid, I would always daydream about what it’d be like to sleep on a cloud. When I saw Morell’s work, I felt like I finally found the missing piece to the puzzle that would make that dream a reality -- well, in pictures at least.
Interestingly, when I first took this picture, I totally overlooked it. Instead, I picked a different shot and decided not to revisit this technique until I had more resources (such as a bigger room, better camera, etc). I think this image, however, is probably much closer to what I was originally trying to create than the image I picked at the time.
