In the camera obscure technique, darkness, silence and slowness force us to contemplate the world in a new way from a new point of view. When space becomes a "darkroom", it creates the magic of photography. Then I feel that working with light is special.
The choice of the camera obscura method as a tool in 1996 was a natural result of many years of working with pinhole photography. Each of the techniques is slow, unpredictable and forces you to stop in your daily routine. They present a challenge in experimenting and expanding conventional photography.
The idea of creating the "Interior / Exterior" project was born at night in 1996 after seeing several black and white photos by Abelard Morel in the magazine. In a room transformed into a camera obscura, I can capture a picture of a person, at the same time his room and view outside the window - what an all-encompassing method for photographing someone's environment! The original idea soon developed into a new direction. Pictures began to convey not only human surroundings, but also a journey into "mental landscapes": reflections of memories, thoughts, fears and dreams. For me, working on this series was like creating photos for a family album: visiting people and me. To take pictures, I transform the rooms into a camera obscura, covering the windows with darkened plastic and placing a straight, convex lens in the cut-out hole on the top. Then the view from behind the window reflected upside down in the room, creating a magical space. A person placed inside this space was later photographed by me with a conventional camera. "Interior / Exterior" is my extensive and long-lasting project achieved with the camera obscura method. So far I have worked on it in Finland, Norway, Italy and France. The work is still going on.
Marja Pirilä - born in 1957 in Rovaniemi, Finland, near the Arctic Circle. In 1986, she graduated as an artist photographer at the University of Arts and Design in Helsinki, and as a Master of Science at the University of Helsinki in the Department of Organic Zoology. Author of several dozen individual and group exhibitions, both in Finland and abroad. Her works are in both private and public art collections. Honored with The Finnish State Award for Photography in 2000.