Camera Obscura in northgallery

Camera Obscura (darkened room) is a certain illusion or an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings through a hole on one side of the room. Light from an external scene passes throuhg the hole and strikes a surface inside where it is reproduced, upside-down, but with colour and perspective preserved.

Now you can experience Camera Obscura in the North Gallery at Kjarvalsstaðir and see how this works with your own eyes. It takes awhile to adjust to the darkness but soon enough one can see forms, lines and movement happening outside the room. You can come back many times and never see the same image since the changing light and weather obviously effect what is reproduced. This was one of the inventions that led to photography.

Please note, the photograph was taken with about three minute exposure and is quite sharper than what the eye can see.