| Vera Lutter’s unusual photographs show more than just reality

For her unique photographs, Vera Lutter (*1960 in Kaiserslautern) makes use of technology that was first described by Aristotle: the camera obscura. Light is projected through a tiny hole into a darkened room, producing an upside-down, reverse image of the exterior world in the interior. In a process that can last for days, weeks, or even months, Lutter exposes light-sensitive material to capture haunting, uncanny images on large-format negatives; they encompass not just one point in time but an entire period of time, thus calling into question the documentary value of photography.

Besides black-and-white photographs, this elaborately produced volume also presents two of the artist’s new projects: in the Moon series and One Day, a twenty-four-hour video and sound installation, she again examines the origin of light and the role it plays in our understanding of the notion of time.

Exhibition schedule: Carré d’Art, Nîmes, June 6–September 16, 2012