History of Photography

Aristotle Discovers The Camera Obscura

400 BCE

Aristotle discovered that by passing the sunlight through a pinhole, it would create a reversed image of the object it is pointed at on the ground. He used the device as a means for viewing the eclipse without having to directly stare at the sun.

Al-Haitham continues Aristotle's work

1035

In 1035 an Egyptian scientist named Ibn Al-Haitham continued Aristotle's work. At first he devoted himself to understanding what makes up light. He had a theory that light travels in straight lines, called rays. He set out to prove his theory by arranging a line of candles on a table, lighting them, then standing them behind a screen that separated him from the candle's lights. He recorded his findings in a book titled Kitab Al-Manazir.

Leonardo Da Vinci experiments with mirrors, lenses, and pinholes

1510

In Italy, inventor and artist, Lenardeo Da Vinci found out about al-Haitham’s work and decided to try his own experiments using mirrors, lenses, and pinholes. In around 1510 he wrote in his book “when the images of illuminated objects pass through a small round hole into a very dark room …. You will see on the paper all those objects in their natural shapes and colours. They will be reduced in size, and upside down, owing to the intersection of the rays at the aperture.”

Cesare Cesariano publishes the first description of the camera obscura

1521

In Italian, the name for a darkened room, Camera Obscura, became synonymous with the projection of light through a small hole. In 1521, one of Da Vinci’s students, Cesare Cesariano, published the first description of the Camera Obscura, however it was not broadly read.