Gábor Ösz's Camera Obscura Projects Explore Architecture and Perception

Hungarian-born artist Gábor Ösz, based in Amsterdam, creates photographic and video works that investigate light, space, and image-making through conceptual techniques. His practice includes the series Camera Architectura, which employs camera obscura methods in architectural settings like WWII bunkers along the Atlantic Wall, a train sleeping car in Travelling Landscape (2002), and a caravan in Permanent Daylight (2003-04). Ösz studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest and completed postgraduate work at the Rijksacademie of Visual Arts in Amsterdam. Notable projects include Liquid Horizon (1998-2002), using bunkers as cameras, and Constructed View, set in a high-rise under construction. In a 2006 interview with Barnabás Bencsik, Ösz explained his shift from painting to photography and film, driven by an interest in materials and light. He described how architecture and camera obscura are intertwined, with buildings dividing space and windows facilitating observation. Ösz's works are held in collections such as the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Gemeentemuseum The Hague, Ludwig Museum Budapest, and Frac Franche-Comté. His artist statement reflects on black and white as colors representing totality or absence, linking to the camera obscura's dark chamber where light creates inverted images. Ösz emphasizes that locations determine his pictures, with exposure times sometimes lasting seven to eight hours, and he avoids intervention in the creation process.