Abelardo Morell (great camera obscura images)

[TheAlex]

I love his camera obscura images - here are a few of my favourites:
http://www.abelardomorell.net/photography/cameraobsc_01/cameraobsc_20.html
http://www.abelardomorell.net/photography/cameraobsc_01/cameraobsc_16.html
http://www.abelardomorell.net/photography/cameraobsc_01/cameraobsc_14.html

His newer photos are in colour and mainly upright. I prefer the black & white ones. They're still awesome:
http://www.abelardomorell.net/photography/cameraobsc_49/cameraobsc_64.html
http://www.abelardomorell.net/photography/cameraobsc_49/cameraobsc_61.html
http://www.abelardomorell.net/photography/cameraobsc_49/cameraobsc_58.html

Unique? I don't remember seeing anything like it before at this quality, but I bet many have tried since he started (if indeed he was the first). Is anyone tempted?

 

[Andy90]

Probably not the first, since the Camera obscura dates back to antiquity - apparently Aristotle knew about them in the 5th Century BC. I suspect someone at the dawn of 'true' photography (ie altering a chemically laced surface to record an image) probably did the same thing. Nicéphore Niépce is credited with the first every 'true' photograph the "View from the Window at Le Gras", which was taken with a Camera Obscura.

Renaissance painters used them to project images onto Canvas and hence 'copy' the image by sketching over the resultant image.

They were certainly one of the major drivers of a 'light sensitive' surface and quite a remarkable development for its time, it obviously took a few centuries for chemical knowledge to catch up and th rest is history.

Nice images though.

 

[TheAlex]

I meant unique in how crisp the camera obscura projections are and how he seems to have put a lot of work into composing the shots, in a sense that they look like one image instead of two combined.

I didn't know Renaissance painters used them in that way though, thanks for the info.