Exhibit:

Seeing beyond the Dark Room: Representations of the Camera Obscura

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This image gallery explores the unstable place of the camera obscura in Romantic visual culture and offers a critical revision of Jonathan Crary’s central thesis in Techniques of the Observer (1990). In this text, Crary contends that the camera obscura is a model of rational, disembodied vision that is later subsumed by a modern, subjective mode of observation. The varied representations of the optical apparatus in the Romantic period, however, complicate his notion that the camera obscura as a principal model of observation was roundly discarded in the first quarter of the nineteenth century in favor of a conception of modern vision based on new optical technologies. The images which make up the gallery are illustrated plates drawn from a wide variety of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century books on science and optics, ranging from dense theoretical texts intended for the scientifically erudite reader to the popular genre of rational recreations for the curious dilettante. Illustrations and diagrams of the camera obscura were often shown with other types of optical devices on the illustrated plates, such as fantastic, illusion-producing devices like the magic lantern, as well as highly abstracted scientific diagrams. The juxtaposition of related yet distinct images of the camera obscura found on each plate in the gallery will reflect the position of the camera obscura in relation to other optical equipment and to various considerations of vision. For example, the movement from Ferguson’s spare, diagrammatic rendering of the camera obscura’s inner mechanisms to M. Guyot’s lavishly colored illustration of a table-like camera obscura provokes uncertainty about the position of the camera obscura. The placement of the camera obscura within a variety of other optical devices and diagrams in the images and texts further suggests that the Romantic preoccupation with vision was not limited to a single apparatus for the formation and articulation of a modern visuality.

Credits: 

Beth Zinsli

Exhibit Tags: 

Images in this Exhibit

Illustrations of Natural Philosophy, Plate No. 32
Main Description:
“Plate No. 32 Optics” features thirty-four color illustrations which refer to a range of scientific diagrams and to popular knowledge on the general topic of optics. This variety of illustrations includes images of simple and complex lenses and their use in optical machines, the refraction and reflection of light, the color spectrum, and the anatomy of the human eye, as well as figures of a...
Recreations in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, Plate I
Main Description:
“Plate I” has six figures which illustrate experiments and problems on the nature of light. Figure 1 is a diagram of light reflecting off a polished surface. Figures 2 and 3 illustrate light refraction through water or oil, which is also diagrammed geometrically in Figure 4. Figure 5 demonstrates the inversion of an image of an external object through a lens in a darkened room, or a diagram of...
A Compleat System of Opticks in Four Books, Plate 57
Main Description:
"Plate 57" features seven illustrations to accompany Book III of A Compleat System of Opticks, which describes the science behind a variety of optical and image-making machines, including a portable camera obscura, a binocular telescope, and various magic lanterns: a simple tin magic lantern, with a small flame to cast light and an adjustable tube to change the size of the projection,...
Nouvelles récréations physiques et mathématiques, Plate 15
Main Description:
These five figures explicate the construction of a device which, using catoptrical mirrors, project optical illusions. Figures 1 and 2 portray the device itself, while Figures 3 through 5 explain the optical physics of the convex and concave mirrors and the reflected rays of light involved in the illusion.
The History and Present State of Discoveries Relating to Vision, Light, and Colours, Plate II
Main Description:
"Plate II" features seven illustrations to accompany Priestley’s text, including: a parabolic or burning mirror; a diagram of a convex lens used for magnification; a diagram of how light passes through the eye; a drawing of a room-sized camera obscura in which the image outside the chamber is shown projected onto the wall of the room; an illustration of a hollow polished cylinder copied from...
Recreations in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, Plate II
Main Description:
“Plate II” presents two figures, both of which refer to a sedan-chair style camera obscura in which a person can comfortably sit. Figure 7 is a view of the interior of this alternative camera obscura, “a machine shaped almost like a hackney chair” (J. Ozanam, Recreations, 178), in which exterior images from all around the machine can be projected onto an interior surface using a rotating...
Lectures on Select Subjects in Mechanics, Pneumatics, Hydrostatics, and Optics, Plate XIX
Main Description:
“Plate XIX” features eight figures to accompany the text entitled “Of Optics.” Figure 1 illustrates the manner in which light travels through a multiplying glass to the eye. Figure 2 diagrams the optical physics of the portable box camera obscura with a mirror to right the inverted image. Figure 3 illustrates the physics of the common looking glass. Figure 4 explains the optical illusion of...
Nouvelles récréations physiques et mathématiques, Plate 16
Main Description:
“Plate 16” features nine figures which illustrate devices used to create optical illusions. Three of the colored figures depict different forms of magic lanterns and how they are operated in order to project phantasmagoric illusions. The figure in the upper right corner of the plate is a portable camera obscura, constructed to resemble a side table or desk. The figures along the bottom of the...
Rational Recreations, Plate III
Main Description:
“Plate III” features four illustrations of rational recreations involving optics and illusions. Figure 1 illustrates the refraction of light through water in a vessel. Figure 2 diagrams alterations in human vision based on the optic nerve receptors. Figure 3 is a portable camera obscura much like the one illustrated by Guyot in Nouvelles récréations. Figure 4 is a magic lantern.
Recreations in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, Plate XVII
Main Description:
“Plate XVII” features ten figures that accompany a section of the text discussing optical illusions and tricks. Figures 52 and 53 depict an illusion using decanters of water and a concave mirror. Figure 54 portrays a room-sized camera obscura with a single lens for use by artists. Figures 55-57 depict a “dioptrical paradox,” an optical illusion involving a multiplying glass or prism. Figure 58...