The Dark Chamber
James Casebere, "Garage" (2003)
The multimedia exhibit “Haunted,” on display at the Guggenheim Museum until September 6, draws on a longstanding association between photography, film, and the supernatural. From Victorian “spirit” pictures to the quintessentially cinematic genre of sci fi, new visual technologies have always been seen as literally incredible. One can’t believe one’s eyes.
In that context, James Casebere’s photograph, included in the exhibit and reproduced here, is remarkably simple and unassuming. It is just a garage, as advertised: empty of everything but light. The composition is intriguing though. We can’t quite see around the corner of the room and the lit windows are curiously irregular. The image evokes the cinema, where darkened rooms are pierced by light. In fact, the combination of light and empty room makes this photograph a visual representation of a camera itself. What is a camera, after all, except a dark chamber that light can enter? The camera is also a mechanical eye, not just in its function but in its form: another chamber for incoming light that is made intelligible as it is manipulated. It is almost as if Casebere is revealing a magician’s secret here. Look, he seems to say, photography is not all smoke, shadows, and mirrors; the illusions are illusions too.
In: contemporary, film, photography · Tagged with: "Haunted" exhibition, Guggenheim Museum, James Casebere