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  • Essay / Pinhole photography - 1993

    The pinhole can be explained by a simple law of the physical world. Light travels in a straight line and when certain rays reflected from a light subject pass through a small hole in a thin material, they do not scatter but cross and reform as an inverted image on a flat surface parallel to the hole (Wilgus). The pinhole camera has served many purposes over time, but the greatest contribution has been made to photography. Without the pinhole camera, the camera and photography as we know it would not exist. However, modern photography has evolved from the pinhole process to the digital world. With this development, the pinhole camera fell largely out of use, but since the 1960s and 1970s the world has witnessed a renaissance of the pinhole camera. Not only has it been revived, it has been revolutionized. Create images of soft, ghostly beauty, with distorted images and disappearing subjects; the pinhole camera truly has an aesthetic of its own. There are endless options to choose from in making a pinhole camera, an art that is limited only by the designer's imagination. This research paper is written with the aim of tracing the history of the pinhole camera, a history that goes far beyond the simple invention of photography. The invention of the pinhole camera is an invention of photography itself, it is an art and media that has been revived in today's field of artistic study. The first record we have of the pinhole camera was made by the Chinese philosopher Mo Ti in 4000 BC, he was the first to describe the optical phenomenon which he called "collection place" or "locked treasure room". He discovered that light passing through a small hole in the wall would project an inverted colored image onto an opposite, blank wall (H...... middle of paper ...... the path to Justin Quinnell's mouth that the pinhole has carved out its own place in the world It has significantly influenced our society and the world around us – because where would we be without photography Works CitedRenner, Eric Pinhole Photography: Rediscovering a Historic Technique. Boston: Focal Press, 1995. 4-65, 157. Print.Hirsch, Robert. Seizing the Light: A Social History of Photography. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.Stewart, Doug. 31.2 (2000). ): 124. Web. December 4, 2011. Wilgus, Jack and Beverly. “The Magic Mirror of Life: An Appreciation of Camera Obscura.” Brightbytes.com, August 2008. 2011. .