The Longest Photographic Exposures in History

by Sikastiara

Quoted from here.

The German photography artist Michael Wesely has created even longer exposures. Using large format cameras (4×5 inches) he captured the light of his objects for up to 3 years in monochrome or colour.

In 2001 he was invited by the Museum of Modern Art in New York to use his unique technique to record the re-development of their building. He set up eight cameras in four different corners and photographed the destruction and re-building of the MoMa until 2004 – leaving the shutter open for up to 34 months!

The sun traces in the sky give the images a beautiful, painting-like feeling. To me it is very surreal to see the movement of the sun – or more precisely the movement of the earth around the sun in such a way.

The photo below was taken over almost 14 months at the Leipziger Platz in Berlin – which at the time together with the Potsdamer Platz formed one of the biggest construction sites in the world.

I find incredible that you can actually see the passing of time. The older parts of the building that were exposed the longest appear darker and clearer. While the newer parts seem more ghost like. More than 2 years took it Michael to create this incredible time incapsulation at the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin (below).

Wesely claims that he could do exposures almost indefinitely – up to 40 years! Now that’s something I would love to see one day.

Here is another image he created. It is a one-year exposure of an office which he took from 29 July 1996 to 29 July 1997.

Here is another one of his mesmerising creations. I don’t know exactly how long he exposed it, but I think it is totally beautiful too. The life and death of a bunch of flowers.

If you are interested in his photographs you can buy his book he published a while ago.

OPEN SHUTTER by Michael Wesely