Transformed into a functioning camera obscura, The Center for Engagement at Purchase College has become an optical apparatus that demonstrates the fundamental principles of light and vision.

The camera obscura is not merely a historical artifact but a conceptual framework bridging the origins of photography with contemporary discourse on visual culture. By stripping away modern photographic technology, this installation foregrounds the essential conditions of image-making: the interplay of light and shadow, the passage of time, and the translation of three-dimensional space into a two-dimensional projection. The ephemeral nature of the projection underscores the transient qualities of vision itself, emphasizing that seeing is an active, interpretive process rather than a passive reception of information.

In an era where digital imaging saturates the visual field, stepping into the camera obscura provides a rare phenomenological experience—one that re-engages the viewer with the mechanics of perception and the materiality of light. This installation serves as both a meditation on photography’s origins and an invitation to reconsider the act of looking itself, situating photography not as a fixed practice but as an evolving inquiry into the nature of vision.