by Wayne Leon Learmond

Created on: November 28, 2008   Last Updated: March 30, 2010

Photography {Writing with Light}

THE CAMERA OBSCURA

1839, and the first use of the word 'Photography' was said by Sir John Herschel. It was in this same year that the photographic process became public. The word 'Photography' is derived from the Greek words for light and writing - in other words, 'writing with light'. Before I go through the early stages of photography, a prediction, which was quite stunning, was made by a man named De La Roche {1729-1774}. in a piece of work called Giphante. Within this fictional tale, it had been possible to capture images upon a canvas. This canvas would have been coated with a sticky substance. The story goes on to say that the canvas would not just provide a mirror image, but would also remain stuck to it too. The canvas would have to be dried in the dark in order for the image to remain upon it permanently. Now, the author of this piece would not, could not have known how prophetic his story would become, thirty years after his death.

Two processes are needed that have to combine to make photography feasible. Because these processes where known for quite some time before the 1830s, it is very surprising that photography had not been invented earlier. It was not until these two specific processes came together that photography came into existence.

The Camera Obscura: Go into a darkened room on a very bright day, make a tiny hole in a window cover, and turn to look at the opposite wall. What you see is a perfect image of the outside world...only upside down. This law of physics is explained like this: Light, as we know it, travels in a straight line. The rays reflected from a bright subject that pass through a small hole in the cover of the window, do not scatter, but reform as an image, that is upside down.

This law of physics and optics was known in ancient times. In fact, the ancient Chinese Philosopher, Mo-Ti {5th Century BC}, mentioned this type of device. An inverted image was recorded, formally, by him. An inverted image formed by the passing rays of light, as they poured through a pinhole into a dark room. He called this dark room, ''The collecting place', or, the 'Locked treasure room'.

Another ancient philosopher, Aristotle, {384-322 BC} understood the optical principal behind the Camera Obscura. it was, in fact, Aristotle that viewed the crescent-shaped sun, as it passed through a partial eclipse. Its image was projected upon the ground through hole in a sieve.

The Islamic Scholar, Alhazan {Abu Ali al-Hasan lbn

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