thescruffypiratedotorg

LensRentals, which does exactly what it sounds like, also blogs about the history of photography, cameras and lenses. I haven't read all of the posts mentioned here, but I've read a few of them and find them pretty interesting. The lens ones go into maybe a little too much detail but if you're interested in photography at all I recommend checking these out!

Here's an excerpt from The Chemists, the Potter, and the Aristocrat: Imaging Before the Photograph about the camera obscura:

Over time the camera obscura evolved into a dark box with a lens and mirror that could be considered fairly portable. It was used as a drawing aid by artists in Renaissance. When, and to what degree, remains controversial but by the late 1500s Giovanni Battista della Porta suggested in his book “Magiae Naturalis” that a camera obscura should be used to sketch all portraits and landscapes before painting.

Our boy Giovanni, though, is part of the reason the camera obscura wasn’t discussed too much for the next few centuries. He made a salon in his house into a huge camera obscura by putting a small hole in the outside wall and darkening the windows. He then invited guests over, and arranged for a group of actors to perform outside. He thought his guests would be most entertained by seeing the upside down images of the actors projected on the Salon wall.

Giovanni was obviously a really bright guy but apparently forgot, in his enthusiasm, that he was living in Italy in the 1570s. His visitors, being people of that era, realized immediately the images of upside down humans moving on the wall could only be the work of the Devil, ran screaming from his house, and Giovanni spent the next year defending himself from charges of Sorcery brought by the Inquisition. While he was eventually found innocent of sorcery, I doubt he hosted any more obscura parties.

LensRentals 2011: Our Best Blog Posts

6 January 2012 06:07pm UTC • 31 views • 0 comments

Tagged with photography, lens, history, camera

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