Luminous, and grand in scale, Vera Lutter's camera obscura photographs explore the continued possibilities of the photographic medium, whilst meditating on how time may be captured, manipulated and represented as image.

Using a technique born with the first explorations into photography in the 17th Century, the camera obscura works with the basic premise that when light passes through a small hole into a darkened room, it produces an inverted image on the opposite wall. Transforming rooms into cameras, and often inhabiting them during the length of each exposure, Lutter projects her subjects onto large-scale photo-sensitised paper and develops them as unique negatives. Lutter considers the camera's transcription as the ultimate representation, only inverting the upside-down negative to form a more readable image.

The resulting monumental photographs capture the trace movements of her subjects over the duration of each exposure, sometimes hours, sometimes days. Challenging the perception of a photograph as a frozen instant, they reflect a transitional process which links her work with the early time-based video work by artists such as Andy Warhol and Bruce Nauman.

Conceptually and instinctively Lutter is drawn to the urban environment, particularly to places with some historical or iconic resonance. From the Kvaerner shipyards in Rostock, to Frankfurt Airport, to the skyscrapers of New York and Chicago, to the Pepsi-Cola sign in Long Island City, Lutter's subjects are defined by an overwhelming sense of reverie and tranquility. The long length of exposure filters out all incidental movement leaving only the "visual echoes" of time's passing. All subsidiary detail is removed, and only the essential remains.

Kate Zamet
August 2002