Camera Obscura

About a year and a half ago I was sitting up late thinking of designs for a camera obscura, that could be easily accessed by adults and kids alike, something waterproof for outdoors, and that will withstand the Oregon weather! A tall list, so during one of my late night creative insights I thought how the perfect camera obscura would be a revolving darkroom door. Only thing is they are often about $2000 before shipping!!! I found one on the east coast on ebay for a few hundred in poor shape, then on a whim I check the Portland Craigslist only to find one that had been posted ten minutes earlier at 11:55pm just outside of town for a song!!! This is how affirming creativity can be. I spent the process of a rainy winter cleaning, priming, painting, creative wool baffles, securing the camera to it's base and so creating a magnetic aperture set that the kids can interchange for different light and effects. The camera obscura is installed in the lower playground of Multnomah Playschool, where my daughter attended playschool for the past two years. It has been life inspiring to see kids and adults alike take in the amazement of the living world question what we see and how light works. It's unreal to see the world upside down and backwards moving, and all projected through a hole the side of a paper punch. The image wraps around the entire inside of the camera from floor to ceiling! Here are a few images of the camera, and a few photos corrected for orientation that were taken of the image reflected onto the camera wall.