ART PROGRAM

Shi Guorui

(b. 1964, Shanxi)
Born in 1964 in Shanxi, China, Shi Guorui is well-known for his monumental photographs using a camera obscura, an antique photographic technique of exposing light-sensitive paper to subjects through a tiny pinhole.

For his cityscapes and landscapes, Shi converts rooms in buildings adjacent to his subjects into darkrooms, where a small aperture on one end allows light to pass through and expose photographic paper, attached to the wall on the other end. He spends hours framing and calculating each shot in his makeshift, onsite darkrooms. The long exposure photos can take anywhere between 90 minutes to nine hours to create. Shi often stays in the room during the exposure, a process which he personally finds meditative.

SHANGHAI

2005
UNIQUE GELATIN SILVER PRINT (CAMERA OBSCURA) 
THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, LOS ANGELES, THE EAST WEST BANK COLLECTION, PURCHASED AND PROMISED GIFT OF EAST WEST BANK.
50 1/2 x 157 7/8 IN

On display at:

PASADENA COMMERCIAL BANKING CENTER, CALIFORNIA

Shi converted a hotel room on the opposite bank of the Shanghai skyline to capture this image of Shanghai (2005).