Abelardo Morell at Bryce Wolkowitz

In an age when keychains can take multi-megapixel digital photos, the camera obscura seems so quaint as to incite incredulity. You can really turn a whole room into a camera with some thick drapes, a pinhole, and a reflective surface? Yep. And to see just how exciting and downright innovative this (ancient) technology can be, check out Abelardo Morell's breathtaking photographs of camera obscura projections onto hotel rooms, gravel rooftops, and the desert floor, currently on view at Bryce Wolkowitz, in Chelsea. (A companion exhibit can be found at Bonni Benrubi in Midtown.) Morell's images, like the one above of the Manhattan bridge thrown onto a living room wall, dissolve the boundary between interior and exterior, between the position of the observer and the object of observation. They remind you that to be in a city is always to be of it.

Photo: thanks