Camera Obscura-Vanderbilt Republic-Gowanus Loft-George del Barrio-Brooklyn-NYCAll photos by the Vanderbilt Republic

Gowanus’ Vanderbilt Republic is always up to something new and large scale, like their 2015 lighting of the Smith-9th Street Bridge. Now, they’ve turned their cool loft space into a veritable camera obscura – a modern version of the ancient devices that brought forth the modern camera. This camera obscura turns the whole loft into a dark room, with a hole that allows the outside scene to project (upside down) onto the walls inside. The Smith-9th Street Bridge figures clearly as a recurrent muse for the Vanderbilt Republic, along with the skyline of Gowanus itself, forming incongruous visions atop the loft’s walls, kitchen spaces, doors and more.

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It’s a photographic monument, the creators George del Barrio and Ashton Worthington state – a “3,000 sq. ft. epistemic machine” that “will evolve through a month of experimentation, capturing an ephemeral Brooklyn panorama and personal moment in time,” they describe.

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The exhibit is up through March 2nd, through Eventbrite signups. They warn that guests “must be prepared to spend a full 45 minutes in deepest darkness.”

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Next, check out what the abandoned Gowanus Batcave used to look like inside and while in Gowanus, check out Retrofret, a shop specializing in bizarre instruments

All photos by the Vanderbilt Republic