Public Events --
Camera Fantastica
- Location: ISM Chicago Gallery, Chicago
- Date: Monday, April 23, 2012 through Friday, April 27, 2012 , 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
The ISM Chicago Gallery is hosting the "Camera Fantastica" exhibition in the Atrium from April 23 - 27, 2012. This exhibition is in conjunction with Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day and Chicago State University. Two Illinois Chicago State University photography students, Mayra Pimentel and Kevin Oronia, will be exhibiting photographs in the Atrium of the James R. Thompson Center from April 23 - 27, 2012. "Camera Fantastica” brings together the magical realism of photographers Mayra Pimentel and Kevin Oronia who, through dissimilar approaches, reference dream, theater and fantasy in their pinhole camera images.
Mayra Pimentel recalls, “As a child I liked looking for facial features in people that could be similar to those of animals. I’d spend time looking for ‘bird people’, those who had small faces with thin noses and features that could resemble birds. I’d think that once I saw those similarities, I’d imagine that they were animals in their past lives. This series takes my childhood imaginings and extends them a bit”. Pimentel is also inspired by 19th century cabinet cards of human oddities, taken in locations such as P.T. Barnum’s Dime Museum and carnival mid-way sideshows.
Kevin Oronia’s subjects pose in the places they live, work and play. He states of his process, “My work began as a response to photographer Abelardo Morells' pinhole camera interiors. I, too, turn rooms into life size cameras. However, I gravitate toward portraiture and this is where our similarities end. Once I select my subject, I choose a room that reflects their life in some way. I often pose them in work uniforms or with objects that reflect their occupations.” Oronia converts the location into a camera obscura (dark chamber), mounts a film or digital camera on a tripod and uses an ipod screen to paint his sitters with light during the long exposures. The results are mysterious color portraits that are eerie in their stillness and simultaneously capture an interior and exterior reality.
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