Inside the ‘Retina Room’

     In November I moved to Washington, finally flying from my hometown of Athens to the farthest corner of the lower 48. In keeping with a tradition I’ve developed, I was due to create a camera obscura out of one room of my new house. Covering anywhere that light might breach the room, I made a light-proof box into which the outside world poured through a minute aperture. This time, instead of simply documenting the resulting image of our backyard and neighborhood, I decided to capture the passage of time within the room. Using timelapses 1-4 hours long, I pieced together this glimpse of a day in the camera obscura.

     Being my fourth time constructing such an experiment, it was quite streamlined this go around. I’ve come to love the phenomenon of the camera obscura as a way to wrap one’s brain around how light works. This understanding can be expanded to account for the optical physics taking place within our eyes and our cameras. If anyone is inspired by this video to make their own camera obscura, please reach out should you have any questions!