Empires Of Vison: An Introduction To The Camera Obscura
Lance Blomgren
T
he apparent magic of sight – the physics and physiology of vision, as well as its predominant
role in our social constructions – has continued to intrigue us since our earliest forays into
science and philosophy. Over the past century, the once discreet concepts of what we see
and how we see have become increasingly inseparable: the degrees to which we can declare reality
to be an objective product of external environmental circumstance, or a subjective interpretation of
reality – a product of the receiving and mediating mind – remain a key area of research and debate.
While the sociological effects of photography and image-making remain well-discussed topics in our
mediated world – their effects on consumerism, self-image and our notions of other, the reliability or
accuracy of pictures – the history of camera obscuras provides a largely unknown, rich framework for
understanding the evolution of these issues, and the ways in which visual technologies, including the
eye itself, has shaped the foundations of reality, our geo-political situations, even thought itself.
The earliest understanding of optics, how the eye works, comes from the first theory of the camera
obscura, Latin for a “darkened chamber,” a light-proof box with a small hole acting as a lens on one
side. In 4th century BCE China, the philosopher Mozi correctly asserted that light travels in straight
lines and therefore must intersect in ways that create a focused impression of reality. A theory
of optics was born. By 300 BCE both Aristotle and Euclid were familiar with the effects of the yet
unnamed camera