sensorium: the supposed seat of sensation in the brain, usually taken as the cortex or grey matter (from Latin sensus: felt) - Macquarie Concise Dictionary, 1988

In looking at how photography might develop in the future, it has been predicted that: “We will increasingly let go of the idea that a photograph is a physical object on paper, plastic or whatever, and think of it simply as an image – be it on a screen, mobile phone, projected onto a building, or even, in time, delivered directly to the cerebral cortex…”.Alasdair Foster, Director Australian Centre for Photography, Capture Magazine, May/June 2005

In his unique way, Klaus Major uses themes and technologies which have continued to fascinate him as a contemporary photo artist. His photographs swim in the twilight world between reality and imagination. They have a primitive, elemental quality, as if to explore visual sensation at its source.

Klaus Major is one of Australia’s most innovative and exhibited pinhole photographers. This is his tenth exhibition (fifth solo exhibition), and follows the success of Unfamiliar Territories (Blender Gallery 2004) and Reservoir (Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne 1999).

The photographs in sensorium have been created using one of the most simple of imaging devices, a pin-hole camera. Pinhole cameras have no lens; light passes directly though a pin-sized aperture, onto a light sensitive emulsion, such as photographic paper or film .

His use of colour photographic paper as a negative is a labour-intensive process, but assists in realising images nearly impossible to replicate using traditional analogue (film) or digital cameras.

“Rather than emphasizing particular places or recognisable forms, Major considers how sensation … interact(s) with visual perception”. Alex McDonald, ‘State of the Arts’ review, 2 August 2004

In a future where images might be delivered directly to the cerebral cortex, this is what some of them may look or feel like, both real and illusory.