Camera Obscura

Camera Obscura, Latin for “dark room,” refers to a dark box in which light rays from an object pass through a small hole or lens to produce the image on the plate or film contained inside. When the light rays create the image within the camera obscura, the image is generated upside down.

Although writings about and rudimentary models of camera obscura have existed since the 10th century, Johannes Kepler, a German astronomer, was the first to coin the term “camera obscura” in his work Ad Vitellionem Paralipomena (1604).

While early models of camera obscura were as large as a room, over the years, models became more an more portable, eventually becoming the prototype for modern cameras. The first inventors to make the camera obscura portable were Robert Boyle and Robert Hook. These early models were used by artists who wanted to document their travels.

Louis Daguerre and William Fox Talbot created the later models that took the first true photographs. While the most common form of camera obscura is the small, portable camera, older, larger versions still exist as attractions of the 21st century at museums in cities such as San Francisco (America), Edinburgh (Scotland) and Cadiz (Spain).