Our Culture Days Camera Obscura Workshop with Erin Siddall was a huge hit!
The twelve lucky attendees (I say lucky because it filled up less than an hour after we made the event known to our mailing list) learned about the history and theory of camera obscuras, how to make an aperture, and how to properly block out light sources with tar paper and gaffer tape (pro tip: always opt for gaffer tape over duct tape, which leaves residue on windows). Once the camera obscura was finished, everyone had a chance to, one by one, open and close their apertures and watch the image unfold as their eyes adjusted. Everyone chose a slightly different perspective, and a couple apertures were even set up at an angle to project to the floor or ceiling. All in all, it was a really fun creative exercise and everyone walked away with a little more understanding about the way we see and how cameras work (and an aperture of their very own).
We’d like to thank Beau Photo for their generous sponsorship of the workshop. We’re grateful for the opportunity to offer a free community outreach event outside of regular annual Festival programming. We hope to offer a similar workshop again, so if you missed it be sure to check back in March when we start to post the April 2016 Festival events and exhibitions online.
And finally, thank you to Edward Peck for these photos from the workshop!
