Image via AP
I really wish I could see this artwork in person: Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, rendered in gemstones, Chelsea’s wedding gift from the country of Vietnam. (Maybe I should start checking Katonah yard sales this fall.) This has to be even better up close than the U.N. portrait rugs.
Artists began using photographs as reference for painted portraits or sculptures almost immediately upon the discovery of the photographic process in the 19th century. However, it takes skill to translate the reference image into another medium so that it looks “real”—in other words, not like a reproduction of a reproduction, but like the person it was meant to represent. Tricky stuff.
Clockwise from top left: Panoramic Camera, View Finder Camera, 35 mm Single Cut Camera, Micro Camera. Photos courtesy of Hyun-seok Sim
Sculptor/metalsmith Hyun-seok Sim crafts these incredible pinhole cameras from sterling silver and brass. Their name, CamerAg, is a portmanteau of camera plus Ag, the scientific abbreviation for silver. Each one is built entirely by hand, right down to the screws and dials. They all take pictures, but that’s almost beside the point. Many of the cameras lack viewfinders, meaning that composing an image relies on luck and chance more than anything else. But who cares? These work just fine as eye candy. To see the entire collection of 23 cameras, click here.