Artist Lea Bucknell’s false-fronted camera obscura got plenty of attention thanks to its unique look, and its highly-visible spot at the West Dawson Ferry Landing.
When Donald Lawrence and his team arrived in Dawson City, Yukon last month the goal was to carry out a festival that was more than a decade in the making. The international research group, which included four TRU student research assistants, worked with the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture (KIAC) to realize a wide range of artworks around interests in the camera obscura. Latin for “dark room” a camera obscura sees an image cast inside a darkened structure — of whatever is outside — by way of a simple lens or open aperture.
Reflecting on the Midnight Sun Camera Obscura Festival, the TRU visual arts professor says the event accomplished even more than he had hoped, and far from winding down from the research project, he’s gearing up to expand his and his colleague’s work.
Lawrence, whose research is supported by a five-year Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), had anticipated producing a book-length publication about the research group’s project. Now, along with that goal, he is looking ahead to the development of further exhibitions and potentially a national touring exhibition, thanks to a collaboration with the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery Curator Josephine Mills.
