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Photographer brings the outdoors inside

Hotel rooms, campers and abandoned buildings are the setting for a photographer’s latest exhibit that brings the outdoors inside.
Calgary photographer Colin Smith captures the outdoors in his beautiful camera obscura images, which are on display at the Okotoks Art Gallery.
Calgary photographer Colin Smith captures the outdoors in his beautiful camera obscura images, which are on display at the Okotoks Art Gallery.

Hotel rooms, campers and abandoned buildings are the setting for a photographer’s latest exhibit that brings the outdoors inside.

Calgary’s Colin Smith will introduce viewers to the optical phenomenon called camera obscura, a century-old technique that will be featured in more than a dozen images at the Okotoks Art Gallery. The images will be on display in the large gallery until Nov. 11.

“There is something kind of magical about the camera obscura,” Smith said. “It’s a really simple process and really time consuming. You set up a small room or tent completely void of all light, put a small hole in that tent and everything outside will be reflected on the inside walls. That’s basically what a camera is.”

Smith said he fell in love with the process when he built one in his daughter’s room for fun.

“I cover the windows up with black material and take my exposure of the walls and turn the camera off and open up the windows and do the exposure for what’s outside,” he said. “Some of them are up to six-hour long exposures.”

During those several hours, the camera can capture anything from moving clouds to the wind in the trees – creating a unique photograph.

“The photography that I do with the long exposure stuff I can’t get the same results with digital,” he said. “I’m forced to do film, but I really enjoy that process.”

Hotel rooms, abandoned buildings and even campers have become a popular setting for Smith’s creations.

“You are looking for unique spaces,” he said. “You are limited to what the view is outside of that room or structure. You are always trying to find something that faces something of interest.”

Viewers of Smith’s art not only find it intriguing to see the outdoors reversed or inverted inside a room, but are also impressed with the technical side of camera obscura, he said.

“People who know what they are might find them a little bit more interesting than people who don’t know what they are,” he said. “Someone might not understand what it is they are looking at. They see the beauty, but they might spend more time being intrigued by it. A lot of people think it’s Photoshop.”

Smith’s photography is featured in numerous art galleries in Edmonton, Vancouver and Calgary, as well as private collections in museum in Medicine Hat and Edmonton.

“I’ve always been interested in photography ever since I was a little kid,” he said.

In the photographic world, Smith has played around with photograms, slow photography and three-dimensional photography.

“I’m always playing with different processes and experimenting with different things,” he said. “I enjoy everything from loading film to sending film off to the developer. I get all excited to get it back.”

Smith has dabbled in various careers including photojournalism and film documentaries. He currently works part time in the film industry doing lighting and grip work, as well as commercial photography.

His inspirations have had no boundaries.

“I’ve been all over the world,” he said. “For one of my very first trips out of art school I drove a motorcycle to Chili and travelled a year across North America and Asia.”

He still has a love for travel, but Smith is now keeping his boundaries closer to home with a focus on western Canada.

“I go on all the backroads that I can possibly get to,” he said. “I like the roads less traveled for sure. I sleep in my car a lot.”

For more information about Smith’s art go to colinsmith.ca

The Okotoks Art Gallery is open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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