Step into the light
So you're fed up with digital photography, it's too predictable, too uniform. Then there's film, but no - that's been done, from Polaroids to cross-processing and a range of alternative processes. So why not step back in time and just experience the inverted images that form naturally in dark spaces, a camera obscura?
The camera obscura was the first step on the road to the miniature digital cameras and cameraphones that we use today, but it allows you to step inside and let the image fall over you.
Interested? If so, the National Trust is inviting you to step into a camera obscura at the 16th-Century .
In its most basic form, a camera obscura is a dark room with a small hole that allows light through and this forms an inverted image on the far wall. The idea of using a pinhole to form an image seems to have been explored more than 2,000 years ago in China, and is later mentioned in Arabic writings as well as by Leonardo da Vinci.
Other cameras used tents and some were contained in portable devices that were used by artists to obtain the correct perspective of a scene. There are only a few remaining walk-in examples in the UK such as the one in , though there are some others which no longer function.
This week, however, pinhole photographers Justin Quinnell and Jamie House are constructing their own camera obscura which uses a unique double pavilion marquee design, the only one of its type in the world.
Justin Quinnell said:
"In these 'pixel hungry' times, we hope this obscura will allow people of all ages to discover the simple wonder within the quality of light and encourage fascination with science and art."
The marquee will include a light exploration chamber, where they will recreate experiments by Aristotle and Isaac Newton, as well as the camera itself that produces an inverted image of Trerice.
If you can't make the journey Justin has produced a .
Enjoy the light.
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