Abelardo Morell

Abelardo Morell (born 1948) is a Cuban-American photographer celebrated for his distinctive approach to contemporary photography using camera obscura techniques. Working primarily with large-format cameras, Morell creates haunting images that project inverted landscapes and urban scenes onto interior spaces—hotel rooms, libraries, and domestic interiors—revealing hidden relationships between interior and exterior worlds. His work challenges conventional perspectives on how we see and interpret photographic space. Born in Cuba and later immigrating to the United States, Morell studied at Bowdoin College and has become a faculty member at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. His photographs have been exhibited internationally at major institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art. Morell's work bridges art history, optical science, and contemporary observation, creating deeply philosophical explorations of vision, memory, and spatial perception that resonate across cultural and disciplinary boundaries.