From 'obscura' to digital: photography takes over JH

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

By Richard Anderson

A small, black tent set up in the playground at the Kelly School looks like the small black sheep ostracized by the nearby yurt village a 100 yards or so east of the school. But the only thing inside the structure is a low, round table, over which you’re likely to trip if you’re not careful.

Draw the entrance flap closed and stand quietly for a few minutes and an image will slowly reveal itself on the table. Wait a while longer and you’ll begin to recognize the craggy profile of the Teton Range, the scrubby sagebrush flats stretching off toward Mormon Row, the playground equipment and school building. You’ll even be able to see the branches of trees waving in the breeze or cars driving past on the Kelly Road.
 
High-tech imaging device? Cheap parlor trick? Black magic? None of the above. The tent is a camera obscura, which literally translates as “dark room,” a 2,500-plus-year-old ancestor of our modern photographic gear. Built this past winter by fine art photographer Bronwyn Minton and a group of photography students she was teaching at the Teton Science Schools’ Journeys School, Minton has set up the traveling camera obscura at the Kelly School for the public to experience. The tent will remain in Kelly through May 22. Minton hopes to bring it to the Murie Center in June and perhaps some other locations around the valley through the summer.

The camera obscura is a neat demonstration of an optic phenomenon first described by the Chinese at least 2,500 years ago. Light rays converge as they pass through a small aperture – in this case, a small hole in the side of a piece of sonotube that sticks out of the top of the round tent like a turret. “As a result of this convergence,” Minton explains on interpretive pages outside the camera, “an image of the outside scenery is projected inside the dark room.” In the simplest camerae obscurae, the image is projected upside-down on a wall opposite the aperture; later versions, including Minton’s, uses a mirror to flip the image and bounce it onto the table.

Aristotle described the phenomena in his writings in the 4th century BC. A Muslim scholar named Abu Ali Al-Hasan wrote about it in detail while using the principle to observe solar eclipses about a thousand years ago. Artists such as Da Vinci and Vermeer may have used them to help them achieve the remarkable sense of perspective in their paintings. The students at the Kelly School have apparently been enjoying the camera. Several followed the example of artists of yore and used the projected image to make a drawing of the view.

During the Victorian Age, they became popular tourist attractions, and a few of these non-portable structures have survived, such as at seaside resorts in England, the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles and San Francisco’s Cliff House.
Minton, however, wanted to make hers portable.

“Mostly it’s just really fun,” she said of the appeal. “I love them … it’s really fun and weird and magical. It’s my crazy obsession.”

Minton warned that it can take a little while for our eyes to adjust to the darkness and perceive the image. “So be patient,” she said. “And it takes adults longer because our eyes are older. For children, it’s much faster.”

Keep an eye out for Minton’s traveling camera obscura throughout the summer. Contact her at baminton@earthlink.net or call 733-6529.

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Speaking of photographic principles, principals from the world of photojournalism will be in Jackson Hole next week to serve as faculty for Rich Clarkson’s annual Photography at the Summit workshop. Hosted by the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the week-long event offers aspiring photojournalists the chance to work with and learn from some of the artform’s greatest practitioners.

The public benefits, too, because each year several of the guest teachers make slide presentations in the museum’s Cook Auditorium. This year’s Photography at the Summit Evening Lecture Series starts Monday and runs through May 17. Lectures begin at 8 p.m. Admission is free for NMWA members, $7 for nonmembers.

The series starts with Joe McNally, who authored National Geographic’s first-ever digitally photographed cover story, “The Future of Flying,” commemorating the anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight.

Tuesday’s lecture will feature MaryAnne Golon and David Griffin. Golon is the picture editor of TIME magazine, where great photojournalism is now as prized editorially as text-driven content. Griffin worked as a picture editor for National Geographic before becoming director of photography at U.S. News & World Report. Two years ago he rejoined the staff of National Geographic as senior photo editor.

The series continues on May 16 with the legendary William Albert Allard, one of National Geographic’s most prolific and talented photographers, and concludes on May 17 with Bruce Dale, another veteran National Geographic photographer and an expert in digital imaging and printing.

For more information about this year’s evening lecture series, call 733-5771. To find out more about “Photography at the Summit” workshops, visit www.photographyatthesummit.com.

Courtesy Photo
Students at the Kelly School used the camera obscura to create several landscapes. The tent will remain on the school playground through May 22 for the curious public to experience and enjoy.

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From 'obscura' to digital: photography takes over JH | Planet JH News Article: Arts Beat

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