The Camera Obscura

The camera obscura was an important optic device invented in the sixteenth century and is the basis of what we know the camera to be today. Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680) described the components of a camera obscura in a book written in 1646. He explains that it consists of an outer shell with lenses in the centre of each wall, and an inner shell containing transparent paper for drawing (1). In order for the camera obsucra to successfully work, the artist needed to enter through a trapdoor (1). Johannes Kepler discusses the camera obscura in his writings from the early seventeenth century (1). Kepler had a portable tent camera that he used for astronomical studies (1). The camera obscura consists of a darkened box into which the artist climbed with a small aperture in one wall through which light passes. The image is then producted onto the oppositve wall, inverted. Eventually, more advanced models came out, using lens to help sharpen thr focus of the produced image and increase its affinity to the human eye (1). The camera obscura was not only large like a room, eventually, there were smaller models some still quite large as well as hand held models. The camera obscura advanced to what we know to be the camera today. 

Citations:

1. Tammy Umaly, "Camera Obscura,"History of Darkroom Photography, n.d.