
2013-Ongoing
Timelapse Video
Explorations in time lapse video
“Architexture”, Brooklyn Fireproof Gallery, Brooklyn NY, November 2003 Alan Klotz Gallery New York NY, September 2005 Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati OH, January 2006 “New York City in Focus”, NYC Health & Hospitals, Manhattan, Bronx and Queens NY, October 2008
2003-2005
Digital prints of the Camera Obscura images of New York City
Together Charles Schwartz and Bill Westheimer explored the city of New York on the upper east side of Manhattan using a Camera Obscura. These pictures reveal the city through the unique viewpoint of the camera obscura and record the images digitally. The Camera Obscura's location is fixed, yet it provides an ever changing view of the city's activities, architecture and landscape. The images use the pre-photographic camera obscura technology combined with post-photographic digital capture to create a timeless view of New York. The digital camera instantly captures the ephemeral projections in a clear crisp reality that transports the viewer into other worlds.
A Camera Obscura is the natural optical phenomenon that occurs when an image of a scene at the other side of a screen (or, for instance, a wall) is projected through a small hole in that screen as a reversed and inverted image (left to right and upside down) on a surface opposite to the opening. Usually takes place in a darkened room. The earliest known written record of the camera obscura is found in the Chinese text called Mozi, dated to the 4th century BCE.
The Camera Obscura that Charles Schwartz and I used for our New York Camera Obscura project was built on his roof overlooking New York City’s Central Park was built by George Keene, a brilliant man who was a scientist, engineer, craftsman and man of all ages. The Camera Obscura was beautifully designed, engineered, and built …
Charles Schwartz On January 24, 2019 my dear friend Charles Schwartz died. He had been sick and incapacitated for years, so his death was bittersweet. He was released from a personal hell being imprisoned in his crumpled body. May 21st, 2019 a memorial was held at the Explorers Club in midtown Manhattan where Charles had …