Robert Orlowski

“…that’s kenosis, that’s serving others, giving of one’s self, using what gifts you have in order to provide some light in a bleakness, in a darkness.” - Cornel West

A juxtaposition between a camera experiment and the song, “Mighty Bright Light”, sung by the prisoners at the Ramsey and Retrieve State Farm prisons in Texas, 1951, allows for a moment to contemplate the structural and thematic similarities between the two.

Participating with the song’s antiphonal (call and response) form traditionally found throughout African and African American music, the lens of the camera is removed in unison with the rhythm of the choir’s chant back to the caller. This action is repeated for the duration of song which, corresponds to the 100’ length of film. As the turret of the Bolex swings away, removing any point of view dictated by the lens or the filmmaker, the light from the present that exposes the film, and the light from the past that is the subject of the song are brought into question.

The act of reimagining the camera, not solely as a photographic device, but as a musical instrument capable of engaging with the past ignites a hope for conceptualizing a society without the power structures that define it.

Screenings:

YES: Emerging Artist Series - Microscope Gallery - 2021 - New York, NY
The Stories Left Out - Now! A Journal of Urgent Praxis