CAMERA

by Kerstin CMELKA
2002 / 16mm / color / sound / 1S / 9' 00

camera

camera presents three tableaux which focus on the relationship between the photographic apparatus and the space it is used to record. The camera shows us three rooms, all of which are »cameras» (in most Romance languages). Although the individual tableaux could stand alone and they have been separated by brief intervals of black frames, their sequence seems to bring up another aspect, that the certainty of our gaze is endangered whenever vantage point and visual focus reflect one another.

The first tableau is thoroughly inviting: It creates the impression that the viewer is on an open terrace in summer, with the sounds of traffic coming from far away, laundry hung out to dry and the sea, sky and clouds visible in the distance. In fact, the space which is shown is anything but open: Being composed of three different shots, it can exist inside the camera only. Our gaze is limited by images transformed into walls, as if the screen had suddenly become a camera obscura.

While the possibility of making the space which surrounds the image disappear is explored in the first tableau, this space is restored in the two which follow. In the first case, the environment, and in the second the room is delineated by an exterior which is just barely visible. The viewer's gaze gains its freedom by differentiating between the visible and the invisible, the film and the world, though only under the condition that it searches for another sky from the room. This freedom is an illusion: Not the invisible but the visible is the enigma.
(Vrääth Öhner)

1 PRINT IN DISTRIBUTION


distribution format 16mm
screen 1,37 - Standard (single screen)
speed 24 fps
sound optical sound
rental fee 30,00 €