The camera obscura is an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen. It is used in drawing and for entertainment, and was one of the inventions that led to photography. The device consists of a box or room with a hole in one side. Light from an external scene passes through the hole and strikes a surface inside where it is reproduced, upside-down, but with color and perspective preserved.
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| Camera Obscura at Artomatic 2012, photo by David Struewing |
Members of The Photo Gathering created a Camera Obscura using a room at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Arlington, VirginIA. The walls were painted black and the windows covered with black opaque paper with a small hole for a meniscus lens. Light passes through the lens, and the scene outside the window, National Airport and The Potomac River, is projected onto the opposite wall and ceiling (painted white). The live image is upside down and backwards (most is on the ceiling).
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image Library of Congress The Camera Obscura will be at Artomatic (free) during daylight hours through June 23, 2012 Wednesdays and Thursdays: noon – 10 pm Fridays and Saturdays: noon – 1 amSundays: noon – 5 pmClosed Mondays and TuesdaysArtomatic Site and Directions |
