Camera Obscura Assignment: Sarah Bledsoe

14:15 Inside of Stirling Railway Station
Note that photo has been cropped only to remove the visible box

13:43 at Memorial Clock Tower in Stirlingshire
N.B. Not very clear because of distance

12:45 at Filling Station in Stirlinghshire
N.B. Projection screen not tight enough, and did not have proper lighting settings.

11:27 at Nationwide Bank

13:55 at Allan Park South Church of Scotland
Note: Zoomed in to remove visible box around edges

14:02 at Wallace Building in Stirlingshire
Note: Cropped edges to remove visible box

14:14 Outside of Stirling Railway Station

11:40 at Viewfield Church in Stirlingshire
N.B. There was not much natural light, which darkened it. It was high, so it was hard to get up close.

Reflective Essay:

When someone first thinks of photography, they think of the art that it involves, but also the science behind it. Even in the beginning stages of photography, and pre-photography, there was much science involved to produce the work of art that is photography. The camera obscura was a very early piece of science that helped pave the way to photography. Once scientists such as Wedgewood and Hershel started developing the chemicals to create and fix the images in the camera obscura, Degarre and Napice were able to find the fix, and Degarre contributed to making photography the widespread art form of today.

            Creating my own camera obscura was a great learning experience about photography, cameras, and how far our technology has come since then. Getting the experience of doing it yourself solidifies the concepts and shows how difficult it is. I met many challenges that they faced back then when creating my own. Finding the right materials was difficult because I needed multiple boxes that fit well together, and it was hard to find any boxes as first. Once I found boxes I worked to get them to fit together to keep all possible light out. My next challenge was creating the projection screen. I worked with it for some time to pull the screen one way and the other, but it was difficult to get the screen to be wrinkle free and sit right. Lighting was another challenge I encountered. Being outside, the light was not consistent. Some pictures became too bright, while others were dark. Finding a light balance was a challenging task. I would walk around truing to find the right light, and would keep adjusting my camera to focus properly on the light that was there. I enjoyed using the camera obscura for this assignment. It was outside of the box and gave me a new image of photography. The pictures were interesting and beautiful as well because they were different from what you normally see.
            Just as the assignment was thinking outside of the box, I focused my theme around not doing what most people would do. Looking at streets and whole buildings did not interest me so I found one part of these buildings to focus on: clocks. Though the buildings they were on were not all created in the same era, I believe that clocks show the progression of time as well as buildings. They are all very different in size, color, style, and location, but show how there is a variety of lifestyles and a mixture of eras in the urban.

I found that for this project we had to fuse science with art, just as people did in the 15^th – 19^th centuries. Making the box involved much problem solving and use of the scientific method to make it functional. After it was completed I then had to use it and make art with it and other technologies such as a digital camera. Capturing the images required some scientific thinking and problem solving. Focus, zoom, optics, and more were considered for each picture. Some images required much time to get all of these elements working together for a visible image, while others went very quick. It took much time and effort to capture the best image possible, as it did back in the early centuries.

            When you start examining the camera obscura as a predecessor to photography, you can see how science started the phenomena and made it art. In the camera obscura there is a convex lens, which receives the image and projects it into the dark room. Scientists who have examined this process compare it to the anatomy of the human eye. Leonardo da Vinci was very interested in the similarities between the eye and the camera obscura. He observed how the pupils reacted to change in lighting, and noted that the lens behaved similarly, but still lacked some understanding of  how the camera obscura worked. Da Vinci also studied the inversion of images, but never reached a satisfying conclusion on how the eye works (Wade and Finger 1160).

            Artists other than da Vinci, such as Johannes Vermeer and Gasper van Wittel made use of the camera obscura for their own artistic works. They would use the camera obscura to receive the image ad reflect it using a mirror onto a piece of paper that the artist would quickly sketch. When examining a selection of paintings throughout an artists life, you can see how their technique refined throughout their years. Early images may display distorted figures and sections blending together as the artist has yet to learn optics and how the camera obscura works fully. Through time these figures gain proper shape and features are fully defined as the artist masters their skill.

            From the camera obscura, many other devices and ideas were created leading to more scientific exploration. When the lens was reversed it created the “magic lantern” similar to a projector. This “lantern” would project a small drawing out. This also led to the lumen. In order to project the drawing it had to be lit up. A lumin is the value of light which represents the number of individual candles it would take to achieve that brightness.

            The camera obscura has taught me much about not only the history of photography, but art, science, and perseverance. It was difficult to construct this older technology to make it functional. Through trial and error I finally achieved a working tool. I gained much appreciation for those who used the camera obscura in the 15^th century when it was at its most popular. These artists had to construct an entire room to capture one image. Those artists helped develop the technologies through time to turn the “dark room” into the camera that we know today.

Works Cited

Wade, Nicholas J and Finger, Stanley. “The eye as an optical instrument: from camera obscura to Helmholtz’s perspective.” Perception (2001): 1157-1177. Web. 20 June 2014.