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From now on I will try to write a little history of photography. As I had mentioned before, I have not studied any art or history relationated things, so this will be my pure knowledge gained by reading books or articles related to photography. First articles, I believe, will be more relationated to the invention itself; next part I will dedicate it to the figures of important, or should I say meaningful for me photographers.

The beginning… Well, the beginning of photography can be relationated with invention of camera obscura, which tracks can be found in Chinese philosopher Mo-Ti (5th century BC!). He noticed the phenomenon of inverted image formed by light as they passed through a pinhole into the darkened room, which he gaved name of “collecting place” or “locked treasure room”. So, you can consider photography as a gift from our mother nature – inventions are sometimes nothing but the discovery of obvious things nature offers us.

In 4th century BC, Aristotle projected the shape of partially eclipsed sun on the ground… through the holes in a sieve. I am not quite sure while he understood the mechanism of light projection; I would say that he was a curious observer and he rather knew ‘how’ and not ‘why’.

Alhazen, an Islamic scholar, was the first to experiment and to gave the full description of the principle. He experimented with five lanterns outside a room with a small hole.

The device itself was clearly described by Leonardo da Vinci in 1490. Those days, camera obscura was a large room and its use was rather limited to astrology. For example, Dutch scientist Reinerus Gemma-Frisius used it to observe a solar eclipse in 1544. In 16th century, a convex lens is added into the aperture for the sake of improving the image quality and the mirror to reflect it down onto a viewing surface, later. The world of arts appreciated the invention as Giovanni Battista Della Porta recommended its use as an aid for drawing for artists in his 1558 book Magiae Naturalis.

Nevertheless, the term of ‘camera obcura’ was given by German astronomer Johannes Kepler. For astronomical aplications he used a portable tent camera which he used for surveying in Upper Austria in the early 17th century. The utility, as we know it today, is a box with a hole, in its simpliest version, or lens which lets the light rays come in.

From now on, the development of camera obscura took two directions. First, as an entertainment tool, there were several camera obscura rooms in places of unique beauty.

The second track of the invention development was its application in arts. As a drawing tool, used by such names as Canaletto, camera obscura was not so far, but not so close either, from what we know today as photographic camera.