Aberlardo Morell

My awareness of Morells comes from his camera obscuras. The stunning conversions of entire room spaces into a camera has always fascinated me and inspired me to create my own in a variety of locations and guises. I have not previously been aware of Morells photogram work.

My first impressions on many of them is that I find them highly inspiring. Many of them take that non-representational abstract appearance I’m seeking from my own practice during this FMP. Some of them also have an appearance which feels very basic and too identifiable for my intentions.

Initial perceptions are that they are photograms in the truest sense. Photograms have always inspired me as effective cameraless image making which creates unique and difficult to reproduce outcomes. The objects making contact with the paper forms this closer bond between the subject and the image. Upon further inspection it transpires that Morell created his photograms on 10×8 black and white film which then allowed for reproductions through contact prints and enlargements.

This broadens my mind on the ways of producing photogram imagery and how the concept could be advanced beyond the limits of simple paper negatives. Although new 10×8 film is out of my reach financially I still have a supply from the past I can use. I would like to broaden these experiments with 5×4 and 120 black and white film. These would be smaller and more limited than using 10×8 however could prove successful.

Wanting to display many of Morells examples but also wanting to draw attention to specific images of greater importance to my practice development. Those are shown in this first gallery with further galleries and commentary below. These first images are more representational of the objects they bare and leave less to consideration by the viewer. Although still beautiful artefacts, I want my practice to become as non-representational as possible.

This next gallery sees the form starting to become more detached from its reality while still maintaining something of the familiar. Still a great consideration point to develop forwards from.

This final gallery are of examples I find most inspiring. Their unfamiliar form gives the appearance usually found in astrophotography with the stars of distant galaxies splayed out upon the night sky. The abstract nature of these images make them, in my view, most successful. Of particular interest is the triangle arrangement with salt and water. In the conveyance of his work, Morell has named each example with the materials forming the image. I feel this creates a far more recognisable image and detracts from their abstract possibilities. This is definitely something which will be key to my own FMP development.