Welcome	About	Introduction	Chapter One beginning of time – 999 AD
Chapter Two 1000 AD – 1399	Chapter Three 1400 – 1599	Chapter Four 1600 – 1649	Chapter Five 1650 – 1699
Chapter Six 1700 – 1749	Chapter Seven 1750 – 1799	Chapter Eight 1800 – 1819	Chapter Nine 1820 – 1829
Chapter Ten 1830 – 1839	Chapter Eleven 1840 – 1849	Chapter Twelve 1850 – 1859	Chapter Thirteen 1860 – 1869
Chapter Fourteen 1870 – 1879	Chapter Fifteen 1880 – 1884	Chapter Sixteen 1885 – 1889	Chapter Seventeen 1890 – 1894
Chapter Eighteen 1895 – 1899	Chapter Nineteen 1900 + post cinema	Chapter Twenty 1911 +	Copyright
HOTDOC Internet Archive Channel	HOTDOC X Channel	HOTDOC You Tube Channel

_{ADDENDUM: 1911 – THE END}

I conclude this work with a list of most of the giant Camera Obscuras of the world, and other bits of information plus some trivia that I believe you would enjoy, that emerged out of the twentieth century when cinema first took a foothold in the entertainment industry.

And some Canadian flavour.

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GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
The Yellow House of Beirut
Built in 1924 by the Barakat family, the building designed by Youssef Aftimos, in the picturesque French Mandate style, Nilu Izadi whom I have spoken of before, installed a Camera Obscura Room from a sniper’s nest. Left is the interior room Pinhole Image and left, the exterior of The Yellow House.

_{All images Nilu Izadi}

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Izadi used one of the bullet holes that had pierced through the stone walls as her aperture. No lens, no mirror. The same aperture brought about as a result of war, now turning back on itself. A large natural Pinhole Camera in the truest sense.

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“I converted one of the rooms of the yellow house into a camera obscura installation bringing the projections of the front line back into the heart of the sniper’s nest.” – Nilu Izadi

The beauty of the world, out of the hate of the world.

GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
As the locals say, “Tha Hut of the Shadows suidhichte ann an Sponish, 20 mionaid coiseachd gu tuath air Loch nam Madadh. Gabh thairis air drochaid-coise aig Sponish, às an sin chì thu an obair air a’ chiad rubha.”

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This giant camera is so obscure, pardon the pun.

This broch-looking structure is located at Lochmaddy, Isle of North Uist, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The hut acts as a camera with a lens and mirror projecting onto an interior wall.

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Apparently, you walk to it via a wobbly suspension bridge. Chris Drury, an English environmental artist, constructed the hut in 1997. You may recall Chris also constructed Cloud Chamber for the Trees and Sky, the Hobbit-looking camera near Raleigh, North Carolina.

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Hut of Shadows houses a simply-designed Camera Obscura which is part of the Road Ends Project and Uist Sculpture Trail. Set into the island’s traditional crofting land, this stone-built hut is partly hidden under its natural turf roof.

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Hut of the Shadows is a grass-roofed stone tumulus with the camera lens on one side and the entrance on the other. Inside the small chamber are three mirrors built into the wall, which reflect the image onto the opposite wall.

GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
The Ducal Palace in Béjar
In this lovely Salmantine village, the Ducal Palace of Béjar is a 16th century Renaissance castle that resembles a fortress and is made up of towers. Currently a high school, it houses what is called the Dark Camera

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Located in the Torreón de las Cadenas of the Ducal Palace, the Dark Camera was opened in 2011 in one of the highest watchtowers in the city. An opening at the top of the tower houses an optical mirror system along with magnificent lenses which project onto a concave screen.

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The Camera Obscura at Ducal Palace in Béjar offers a 360° view of the historic centre of Béjar, the forests, the Sierra de Béjar, the Sierra de Francia and the Picos de Valdesangil. A magnificent and different perspective of Béjar and all its natural environment.

A very rare Camera Obscura Rickshaw. A movie on the go. Do you remember Gravesande’s Sedan Chair Camera Obscura 314 years ago as of 2025, in 1711?

_{Photos by Daniel E. Porter/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images, and Allison Fragomeni}

SNOW WHITE WAS AN ICELANDIC GIRL LIVING IN CANADA
Disney illustrator Charles Thorson was sipping coffee at a West-end Winnipeg diner named the Wevel Café one day in 1925, and sketched the “fairest of them all.” The waitress was Kristin Sölvadóttir and she became the inspiration for Disney’s animated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937.

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BEFORE DISNEY THERE WAS ADOLPHE
SNOW WHITE (1916)
Famous Players / Adolph Zukor presents Marguerite Clark and Richard Barthelmess in an unaccredited role as the Pie Man. James S. “the first motion picture director” Dawley had 182 credits as a director. The original tinted print preserved by and kept at George Eastman House, runs 1:02:58.

There was a first Snow White back in 1902 by Siegmund Lubin which is considered lost, as a copy has never been found. This 1916 version inspired Walt to make his 1937 animated version.

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From Bright Bytes I have learned there was another camera about ten miles down the shore from Llandudno at Penmaenmawr and it’s pictured below from 1890.

^{Photos Bright Bytes}

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The present camera was built to celebrate the millennium and replace the camera destroyed by fire in 1966. Having gone through restorations over the years including the rebuild, this camera is rather unassuming.

Nonetheless it provides striking visuals overlooking the bay.

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Welsh historian John Lawson-Reay, says it is in fact Carroll, pictured in 1863. Edith and Rhoda Liddell, Alice’s youngest sisters are playing on the lowest steps. Alice now 11 years old in this picture, is centred wearing the white dress and sash, and her oldest sister Lorina, 14 years old is closest to the front door where governess Miss Pricket stands.

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LOOK WHAT CINEMATOGRAPHY GAVE US
Seven-year-old Canadian Peggy Cartwright (1912-2001) had 28 acting roles, first in Birth of a Nation (1915) aged three. Peggy was a Little Rascal in the Our Gang series. Below, a frame and lobby card from From Hand to Mouth (1919) with Harold Lloyd.

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As a child Peggy Cartwright appeared on the London stage. She was the last surviving member of the original Our Gang group of kids. Below left, Peggy in a frame from Fire Fighters (1922).

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Here are three frames and one production photograph of Peggy Cartwright and Harold Lloyd in From Hand to Mouth (1919) from which the lobby card was created.

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Production stills of Peggy, and James Gordon, Winston Miller, and Will Walling on the set of The Iron Horse (1924).

WATCH The Iron Horse directed by John Ford here at Tubi.

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1919
FROM HAND TO MOUTH
Here is our little Canadian waif starring alongside Harold Lloyd, wife Mildred Davis, and Snub Pollard. Directed by Alf Goulding, and produced by Hal Roach. Filmed at Hal Roach Studios and surrounding streets. Runs 22:03

CARLA LAEMMLE (1909-2014) was niece to uncle Carl Laemmle (Universal Pictures). Carla at age 16 played the Prima Ballerina in The Phantom of the Opera (1925) with Lon Chaney. She also had an uncredited role in Dracula (1931) with Bela Lugosi.

^{Images the Carla Laemmle Estate}

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GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
This Giant Camera Obscura in Hainichen (Saxony) was installed in 1883. At that time, the Camera Obscura was in a small wooden house seen here on the right.

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In 1985 the wooden-house camera was raised to the dome of a new 11-metre-high stone tower.

It is located today on what is known locally as the frame mountain.

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The Camera Obscura effect itself goes back a little further than 800 years; to the beginning of time having been observed by our first ancestors when they saw the pinhole image projected within.

BACK TO THE FUTURE CINEMA
DAN AERHERMAN
Aetherman is a Swiss based inventor in the self-described Retrofuturistic Style, collecting from times past and reinventing the working future. One of his categories is Cinematographs.

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COFFEE MILL CINEMATOGRAPH
🎞️ Fully functional DVD player, built on a 100-year-old coffee grinder
🎞️ Plays DVD’s, all CD’s, and JPEG slideshows
🎞️ The screen is framed in an antique photo developer frame & covered with an old glass panel

^{Images Dan Aetherman}

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STAR WARS TEASER CINEMATOGRAPH
🎞️ A very special video player in a glass tube, illuminated with an antique Edison bulb from a 1959 Volkswagen Bulli
🎞️ The machine plays all trailers of the STAR WARS saga – a MUST for every STAR WARS fan

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CAPTAIN NEMO’S X RAY CINEMATOGRAPH
🎞️ A small video player for the desk that actually plays
🎞️ Built from various antique individual parts from the past 100 years

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CARBON FILAMENT – CRYSTAL CINEMATOGRAPH
🎞️ Extravagant PC screen illuminated with real carbon filament lamps
🎞️ The screen consists of a slightly transparent glass plate with the liquid crystal layer
🎞️ The video below shows the magic of this device

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THEATRE MAGICUS
🎞️ Multimedia player for music, video and photos
🎞️ Flat screen of an old SONY sales display
🎞️ Radio housing from 1946
🎞️ Operation via a pheasant feather with a brass tip
🎞️ Like a Radio-looking TV

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CAFÉ OBSCURA
Bournemouth, UK
A giant Victorian-style Camera Obscura panoramic periscope-style optical-projection device, in a working café.

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Since Amazon published the Kindle and Apple published the iPad, eBooks have become increasingly popular. Paper books, according to some futurists, will be phased out and replaced with electronic books. This has been said before, like Edison.

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GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
What better place to have a Giant Camera, than a place where one of our great photographic pioneers lived and worked. Lacock Abbey, near Chippenham in Wiltshire is where I’m talking about and it’s where William Henry Fox Talbot worked on his negative/positive photographic process.

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There is a hut in the garden that is actually a camera obscura. A lens on a box protrudes from its left side. Once your eyes have adjusted, you can see a dim, inverted image of the outside scene on the screen, which is located on the opposite interior wall from the lens, when you enter and close the door. Apparently, it has been both green and brown.

At 24 frames per second, a 2-hour movie requires 172,800 individual photographs.

Each one of those images registers on our retina for at least 1/14th of a second.

Over and over.

Twenty-four every second is enough to provide smooth motion.

Even though nothing is moving.

1420 🎞️ 605 YEARS LATER 🎞️ 2025
THE MODERN MAGIC LANTERN
Did you know today’s Smart Projector is the great-great-great-grandchild of the Lanterna Magica, when we go back to the first lantern known of in 1420? Left is Giovanni de Fontana’s lantern from 1420 and right, the Kodak Pico Smart Projector of 2025.

GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
The Griffith Observatory Camera Obscura in Los Angeles uses a rotating turret to produce the reflected images via its mirror, down onto the viewing table.

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With its continuously rotating tube, this Camera Obscura, located on the roof of the Griffith Observatory, offers breathtaking scenic views of the greater Los Angeles Basin and the Hollywood sign on Mount Lee, in the Beachwood Canyon.

^{Image George Keene}

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The camera is a fully adjustable 12-inch f/25 instrument with the following features;

■ A motorized rotation for the azimuth axle
■ Allowing a continuous azimuth rotation of the field of view
■ A 20° field of view on the 60-inch viewing table

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Griffith Observatory’s Camera Obscura features a periscope-like tube on the East side of the Observatory’s roof. The Camera was built by George Keene who also designed the Cairngorms camera in the Highlands of Scotland.

The Wall Street Journal reports on visual technologies, many of which stream directly from pre cinema and the cinematography that came as a result.

Called Museums Test New Technology, Interactive Exhibits, it’s eye-opening what is growing out of motion capture history.

GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
The world’s first camera obscura that you can take selfies with using a 6×6-foot gazebo frame with a 790mm f/5.4 lens. It was designed and built by David White, a photography teacher at Falmouth University, UK. You take a selfie by using your smartphone.

David White, left, takes a selfie on his giant self-made selfie Camera Obscura.

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The image the lens captures is projected onto a screen inside the Camera Obscura which is designed to appear as a giant 19^th century bellows camera. The screen can be moved backward and forward until the image is in focus.

“It’s like being inside a camera, you can have a cup of tea in there if you want,” says White, a senior lecturer on press and editorial photography and a professional photographer, when interviewed by Peta Pixel.

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White placed a Canon camera inside the tent which photographs the screen and can be controlled remotely via an app on David’s iPad or smartphone. “The person just sits in front of the obscura looking at their phone controlling the camera, they see themselves because the camera inside the camera is looking at the screen and they take a selfie,” he explains.

On the left, Falmouth University Institute of Photography staff take a selfie. Photo Gretchen Viehmann.

On the right, Falmouth University Institute of Photography staff member Tom Ingate takes a self-portrait with the Camera Obscura.

White says that it is the first ever selfie-taking Camera Obscura and that he built it for his students as a learning and teaching tool.

“[The reaction] is one of disbelief, and wonder, and amazement when they go inside because there are not many cameras you can go inside of,” he says.

“And then it elevates once they take a selfie and then it elevates again because once I explain they are the author of the selfie therefore they own the copyright to the selfie and they can distribute it, share it, sell it, do whatever they like with it.”

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“The lens was problematic because it needed to cover a larger area — like six-foot square — and there’s not really a need for a lens that covers that kind of area because there’s no film that size or digital sensor that size,” White explains.

Not easily finding what he needed, White had a Woolaston meniscus lens made for his custom needs. Read the full story here at the Peta Pixel site.

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The camera offers visitors the wonderful phenomenon of light projection. Guests can adjust the aperture themselves. These children are amazed at what they see.

A large three metre chain is attached to a lever which slowly moves the mechanism, changing the depth of focus.

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A 21st century light box, the steel sculpture Camera Obscura in Whangarei is the largest sculptural Obscura in the world, with the image projected onto the entire wall like a Panorama.

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The 8-metre-long steel sculpture celebrates the maritime history of the Hatea River. Its shape was inspired by the hull of a ship.

The camera mechanism is housed in perspex (polymethyl methacrylate) and glass, protecting it from dust and creating a beautiful optical experience.

^{Image Michael Cunningham}

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SEE the story of the Great Camera at Timatatanga Hou, New Zealand in this 2:28 video by the same group that designed and commissioned its building. Whangarei District Council.

A LE PRINCE DEEP DIVE
Students of pre cinema or Cinematography pioneer Louis Le Prince are encouraged to listen to the Irfan Shah blog The Shadow Traps. Shah is a British pre cinema historian and Le Prince biographer.

Begin your journey here at the Shadow Traps.

“What does he want me to call it,
the Five Commandments?”

– Cecil B. DeMille, following Adolf Zuckor stopping production immediately on the Ten Commandments in 1923 when the budget went over $1M.

ALICE’S WONDERLAND (1923)
WALT DISNEY’S LAUGH -O- GRAM SERIES
Alice’s Wonderland was a Laugh-O-Gram Studio production series by Walt Disney. Many Laugh-O-Gram shorts mixed animation with live action. Disney is the animator and huge-eyed Virginia Davis the wee lass at close to six years of age. Runs 8:07

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VIRGINIA DAVIS (1918–2009)
The Davis family were neighbours of Walt Disney in Kansas and were motivated by him to also move to LA when he did, for Alice’s sake and her work in the series. In retirement Virginia was quoted saying “It was a great time – full of fun, adventure, and let’s pretend.”

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The tower was built in 1821 as a windmill and was restored (1912) as a memorial to King Edward VII when the exterior was provided with sheltered seating.

The rooftop lens projects a 360° image of the isles from the top of the tower onto a concave table inside the building.

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Buzza tower was restored by 2014 and the Camera Obscura lens / mirror were installed. It takes 45 minutes to view a complete rotation.

The tower stands on a kerbed platform incorporating the remains of a Bronze Age cairn excavated by William Borlase during the 18th century.

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The illustrated chronology of THE HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF CINEMATOGRAPHY is presented in twenty chapters, and represents an exhaustive and historical overview on the subject of pre cinematography. You are now reading the revised 2nd Edition.

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Fulgence Marion reported in his book Wonders of Optics, of the work of Giovanni Battista Della Porta. In reference to the images that Porta observed through the Camera Obscura effect, Marion stated;

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The optical principles of the pinhole are found in Chinese texts from the 5th century. Mo Ti was the first to record inverted images with a pinhole onto a screen. Mo Ti was aware that rays from above an object, when passing through a hole, will produce the lower part of an image.

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Robertson held Phantasmagoria shows in monasteries and chapels at night. Dark and sombre surroundings added special effects to the show.

Showmen used waxed sheets to catch images and allow them to float and hang in the air. Remember the Roman Amphitheatre show put on by Benvenuto.

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Quoted in the preface of Animals in Motion published in 1898, Muybridge writes;

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Perhaps better known for his contribution to the quality of life than the entertaining aspect of it, Edison wrote on the moral demeanour of the finished product to his contemporary’s while being honoured at a birthday gala in 1924.

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GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
The first camera obscura was built in Aberystwyth in 1880 in the grounds of the castle, at the opposite end of the promenade, and was later re-located to Constitution Hill to give a better viewpoint.

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The first Camera Obscura sadly disappeared in the 1920s. The modern one rebuilt in 1985 affords stunning views 1000 square miles of land and seascape with remarkable clarity. The 14-inch lens makes it one of the largest in the world.

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On a clear day you can see 26 Welsh mountain peaks extending over 60 miles. The view is reflected onto the circular screen in the darkened viewing gallery.

SEE 30 seconds of the sea lapping along the beach from 430 feet up on Constitution Hill.

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THE CAMERA OBSCURA ALIVE AND WELL IN 1916
Here we see a page from Popular Mechanics magazine in April 1916 (pages 486 and 487) showing an Aerial Defence Battery using the Camera Obscura to fire upon enemy dirigibles. The cut-away illustrations show the gunner lining up his sights onto the floor image seen though the camera and lens.

MUSEU DEL CINEMA
One minute and sixteen seconds of Museu del Cinema and what they’re all about. From the Tomàs Mallol Collection. One of the few, but great pre cinema museums in the world.

EXCELLENT NEWS
THE HEART OF LINCOLN (1922)
In 1915, Francis Ford, brother of famed director John Ford, made a film called The Heart of Lincoln (1915). Francis remade the film from a three reeler into a five reeler in 1922. Thought vanished for over 100 years, another of our lost films has turned up at Joe Lauro’s Historic Films Archive in Greenport, New York, by a preservationist student-intern named Dan Martin. The 1922 version was discovered among the rusty film cans in a cool, concrete basement in 2024 and by this past February 2025 has been cleaned and digitised.

Ford left Universal following the first film and formed Fordart Films to produce the 1922 film. The five reels that were found are 16mm and are from the 1926 re-release of the 1922 film as an educational copy for schools across the US mid-west. It found it’s way somehow to Lauro’s Historic Films Archive however I have looked but cannot find the digitised copy, or the 1915 version.

If anyone knows where it might be, please share at hotdoc@precinemahistory.com

GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
The Nanton Camera Obscura, at the University of Lethbridge’s Coutts Centre for Western Canadian Heritage, is located on the prairies of Western Canada, five miles northeast of the town of Nanton, Alberta.

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Installed in a 1920s grain bin, the Camera Obscura provides a 360˚ Panorama of the surrounding area.

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The optics is rotated by a simple mechanical arrangement inspired by studies of Eise Eisinga’s 18th century planetarium in Franeker, Netherlands.

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The Nanton Camera Obscura was created with support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the University of Lethbridge and Thompson Rivers University, proving a Pinhole image can be seen even inside a grain bin.

Here is a great entry on post cinema . . . . CHARLOTTE REINIGER (1899-1981)
Although born as my study of pre cinema winds down, Reiniger must be mentioned for her contribution in writing, producing, and directing her highly entertaining and magical animated films.

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Asian Puppet Theatre and Chinese Shadow Theatre were certainly her sources of inspiration for The Adventures of Prince Achmed in 1926. Below, watch this amazing film reconstructed in 1999 from a tinted nitrate copy obtained by the BFI. Runs 1 hour and 6 minutes.

Uploaded by Enhanced Cinema. Soundtrack added; Josef Suk, Serenade, Opus 6; Brandenburg Concerto No 4; Mozart Symphony No 38 in D major.

https://youtu.be/VnwrOBvZ4po

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German animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger devised a multi-plane camera for one of the earliest animated features, The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926).

^{Images in Private Collection}

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1919
THE ORNAMENT OF A LOVING HEART
A Charlotte Reiniger silhouetted cut-out animation running 4:47. Premiered 7 December in Berlin, over 105 years ago (as of 2024), 7 years before The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), her first feature-length animated film.

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Here from the German Film Museum and from 1922, is the Lotte Reiniger short Das Geheimnis der Marquisin, or The Marquisess’s Secret.

Watch for the Nivea soap and cream commercial at the 1:40 mark. It runs 2:36.

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SEE a short 17:02 documentary on the Reiniger technique used in developing her Silhouette Pictures with narration, and Lotte Reiniger herself.

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Look closely at her work and we see how her animation influenced other animators including Mary Blair who came up with ideas for Disney classics Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty and Peter Pan.

Here is Blair’s concept art from Cinderella. The Reiniger influence is clear.

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Reiniger was also an author. READ her Shadow Puppets, Shadow Theatres, And Shadow Films published in 1975, here at Internet Archive.

1911
TROUBLESOME SECRETARIES
Vitagraph film directed by Ralph Ince who plays the suitor. With a nineteen year old Mabel Normand and John Bunny. The second earliest surviving Mabel Normand film, and her first substantial role as per mabelnormand.com. Runs 8:47

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The squat, round hut may look like an enchanted hobbit home, but it is in fact the work of British artist Chris Drury who built the structure as a rustic Camera Obscura in the woods.

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The Cloud Chamber, located behind the North Carolina Museum of Art on the largest museum campus in the United States, is a one-of-a-kind piece that combines fairy tale design with a natural light phenomenon unrivalled by modern man-made technology.

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The chamber is located in the NCMA’s Ann and Jim Goodnight Museum Park.

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The Cloud Chamber allows visitors to see the outside from the inside, using a very ancient and incredible natural God-given technology called light.

PRAXINOSCOPE THEATRE OF HORRORS A modern Praxinoscope Theatre utilizing a “fetishized decapitated head of an old man,” is the creation of Patrycja Reimus.

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Reimus’s personal and creative interest in stop motion animation propelled her into producing moving images projected by the Praxinoscope.

Her theatre features 18 mirrors both on the top and bottom of the inner cylinder – resulting in 18 frames of stop motion animation. Pictured is Patrycja Reimus.

^{All images Patrycja Reimus, Photo of Patrycja by Leo Jerome White}

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The theatre works via the inner cylinder’s mirrors reflecting the image attached to the outer cylinder.

She calls her 18-frame animation “The Decapitated Head of Mr. Doe.”

SEE the Reimus Praxinoscope Theatre in action up close, here.

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SEE Patrycja Reimus’s 18-frame animation The Decapitated Head of Mr. Doe  here.

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Visit her website for the full story of the Praxinoscope Theatre here @ https://patrycjareimus.com/praxinoscope-theatre

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The Alcazar of Jerez is the oldest monument in Jerez de la Frontera. It is one of the few examples of Almohad architecture that’s preserved in the peninsula.

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The Villavicencio Palace houses the camera, the highest point in the region. Visit https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/camera-obscura-at-the-alcazar-of-jerez-de-la-frontera for more information.

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“I AM big, – it’s the pictures that got small!”

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“I have decided that when I am a star, I will be every inch and moment a star. Everybody from the studio gateman to the highest executive will know it”

^{– Gloria Swanson early in her career}

Billy Wilder honoured Swanson in Sunset Boulevard (1950) with this scene at the Paramount gates.

I was so impressed with Kassons book ‘The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression: Shirley Temple and 1930s America’ (which I completely stumbled onto). I highly recommend it to all.

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GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
Cairngorms National Park, Scotland. This giant camera overlooks the Cairngorms deep in the highlands.

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A project of George T. Keene, it houses an 8-inch, f/16 lens built for the University of Dundee. Keene was an engineer at Kodak who after retiring designed, built, and installed custom camera obscuras around the world.

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This particular camera is automatically programmed to rotate in azimuth at different speeds depending on the interest in the scenery.

The Cairngorm camera can pause to study a specific area of interest, and has a wide field of view to cover a 48-inch table. The Camera Obscura overlooks a broad scenic valley and loch to the north.

Canadian-born Florence Lawrence was known as both The Biograph Girl and the First Movie Star.

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1909
THE CURTAIN POLE
Director D. W. and Florence Lawrence and Cinematographer Billy Bitzer. Released as 13 minutes. This cut is 8:01. Mack Sennett helped D.W, but was unaccredited. Harry Solter (1873–1920) also starred. Bitzer helped write.

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Located at Sa Bassa Blanca Camino del Collbaix, Mallorca, Spain, the chamber sits on the island of Palma on a hilltop overlooking the Mediterranean.

The aperture was carved out of one of the metal shutters from war time.

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The exterior landscape –the bay of Alcudia and the islet of Alcanada– are inversely and neatly projected on a white, concave screen on the opposite wall. This facility allows us to become familiar with the basic concepts of cinema and photography.

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This Observatory as it’s called, is open to the public by appointment only, an exclusive and outstanding activity for small groups of up to six people prepared and equipped for a short excursion.

THE CAMERA OBSCURA
Created by The Photographers’ Gallery in London, this short production explains the Camera Obscura, its principles, and some history. Very well done. One of the best little videos I’ve seen. Runs 3:37

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This camera sits along the Canadian Bay of Fundy which has the highest tidal range in the world. It’s image is cast from one single point, down onto the floor. Built with Catenary-vaulted shells, the Cheverie camera was completed and opened in 2012.

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This Camera Obscura was also built using Guastavino Vaulting, named after Spanish architect Rafael Guastavino Moreno in the late 19th century.

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READ the Cheverie story here at https://anotherwalkinthepark.com/2014/12/17/camera-obscura-cheverie-nova-scotia/ or the Dalhousie University webpage https://www.dal.ca/news/2011/08/11/free-labs–real-world-discovery.html

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This beautifully converted Edwardian water tower was rebuilt with optics installed in a cupola at the top of the tower, becoming the Foredown Tower and Camera Obscura.

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The Foredown Tower Camera Obscura was originally built in 1909 as a sanatorium for patients with infectious diseases.

It was demolished in 1989 and rebuilt two years later into this truly optical learning environment.

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Officially re-opened to the public in 1991, it houses one of only two of the largest operational Camera Obscuras in the South East of England.  

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1920
GRAMOPHONE-CINEMA (THE KINEPHONE)
REID AND COMPANY
I rarely cross the line of 1900 and enter the post cinema period commonly called the silent era unless it’s validated. This I think is one of those entries. The present day, whenever it is, never seems to let go of the past, and this is a good thing.

We should never forget our past and here is Reid & Co. in 1920 giving us the Gramophone-Cinema or Kinephone which is a throwback to the beginning of the Gramophone days and combines it with the Phenakistiscope of Plateau which throws it back almost 100 years.

Imagine seeing Chaplin pass his head to his other ‘selves,’ while listening to music.

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WATCH
Reid & Co. was an established English / Scottish firm specializing in musical instruments and entertainment devices, with a notable branch operating as Reid & Co. Piano & Music Saloons in Secunderabad, India, in the Deccan region during the early 20th century.

The location suggests they may have been a local distributor, manufacturer, or patent holder for this device in that region. The Kinephone is considered an extremely rare optical toy today. This video is by Chris1961grams on You Tube.

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The Gramophone-Cinema or Kinephone fits over the spindle of a Gramophone record player and provides a visual cinema as the record spins. Included disks are of cartoon images like Felix the cat, and Charlie Chaplin and others that dance as the record spins through an optical illusion.

_{Animation Tangible Media, images Team Brekker and Tangible Media}

It mimics the Phenakistiscope / Stroboscope effect while matching the music of your choice. How they missed the olden days, in 1920.

_{Images Team Brekker and Tangible Media}

These toys were marketed as affordable “optical playthings” for families, blending emerging film culture with Phonograph technology, and were especially popular in British colonial outposts. Surviving examples are extremely scarce today.

_{Images Team Brekker and Tangible Media}

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ELECTRIC PERISCOPE
TERROR ISLAND (1920)
From 4:20-4:58 the Harry Houdini character shows his invention– an Electric Periscope. Then at 41:40 and 48:43 we see this projection device again. Two lost reels makes it a 54-minute film. From The Video Cellar.

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This non-fictitious apparatus sits closer to the television category than Cinematography. And yes, Houdini does open a safe but from the outside, saving the heroine inside.

Watch for a younger and thinner Eugene Pallette.

WHAT CINEMATOGRAPHY GAVE US
THEDA BARA (1885-1955)
Theodosia Burr Goodman was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was I believe the most popular actress of the early silent era. Her femme fatale roles earned her the nickname The Vamp. She became a major Fox Film star.

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Bara is thought to have the highest body of lost work
of all the silent stars

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So famous did Theda become, that immediate recognition in public was constant. “Once on the streets of New York a woman called the police because her child spoke to me.” – Theda Bara.

Theda fell in love with theatre in high school and at the age of 14 dyed her dark brown hair black. She kept it black until the day she died.

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Forty-four actress credits beginning in 1914 in The Stain (using her real name Theodosia Goodman) and ending in 1926 with Madame Mystery.

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Theda has been honoured by many of her peers which is an esteemed recognition itself. One such homage came in 1958 when Marilyn Monroe posed as Theda in a series she did for famed portrait photographer Richard Avedon.

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Most of her films were lost in the Fox Studios fire of 1937. A smart girl, she had her own personal archive which when opened later in 1940, she found the nitrate film had decomposed to a fine dust.

Bara is thought to have the highest body of lost work of all the silent stars.

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Unlike some stars from the silent era, Theodosia did not die in poverty nor was she forgotten. She died in comfort and wealth, leaving behind an enormous estate, close to half a million dollars in 1955.

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Pictured is a lithograph from a photo of the Theda Bara estate in Beverly Hills.

The name Theda Bara is still known around the world today. However only fragments of her films exist. Her entire film career lasted within the silent era.

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Of 44 films Bara made, only 4 are extant.

🎞️1914 The Stain credited as Theodosia Goodman EXTANT
🎞️1915 A Fool There Was EXTANT
🎞️1916 East Lynne EXTANT
🎞️1925 The Unchastened Woman EXTANT
🎞️1917 Cleopatra Approximately 20 seconds remain – see the re-discovered footage below
🎞️1918 Salome 2 minutes found in 2021

What a shame. Millions of photographs of her, equaling hundreds of thousands of feet of film probably lost forever.

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MOVIE TIME 🍿
THE UNCHASTENED WOMAN (1925)
Here is Theda Bara from 1925 at the age of 40. This was her second-to-last film. Madame Mystery from 1926 was Theodosia’s last film. Watch for Oliver Hardy playing Captain Schmaltz. Stan Laurel helped direct.

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MOVIE TIME 🍿
EAST LYNNE (1916)
A 16mm print of East Lynne now owned by MOMA was found in 1971 making it one of only 4 complete films we have of Theda. Released 19 June, 1916. Her 16^th film. Runs 1:15:07.

Theda was 31 years old.

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REDISCOVERED– THEDA BARA IN SALOME (1918)
In 2021, frames of Salome were found by an employee of Filmoteca Espanola (Spanish Film Library) totalling approximately two minutes, including Spanish intertitles.

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A FOOL THERE WAS (1914)
Theda was 30 when she made this film. Frank Powell who directed, played the doctor. Runa Hodges who played the child, was a screen veteran having made her first film aged 3 in 1913.

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THE CAMERA OBSCURA IN ART
Produced by the History Channel and uploaded by Supersonic Animation, is this cute little piece of history on the Camera Obscura and presents the question “was it used in art?” All in just one minute.

https://youtu.be/Q0ZvWedVp20

1917-1918
THE LIVING PHOTOGRAPHS OF MOLE AND THOMAS
Group portraits have been around awhile but 30,000 people in the same photograph is taking it a bit too far. All images are from The Public Domain Review.

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President Woodrow Wilson required 21,000 officers and men, Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio, 1918. Please attend The Public Domain Review to see more of Mole and Thomas’s “living photographs” and read the complete story.

ARTIFACTS OF MEDIA ARCHAEOLOGY
INSIDE PROFESSOR ERKKI HUHTAMO’S OFFICE
WATCH Professor Huhtamo at UCLA explain his start in pre cinema and show and describe the Zoetrope, the Mutoscope; and other devices of the late Victorian age. Runs 5:38

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The Camera Obscura at Aegina, Greece provides a Panoramic view, having 12 openings in 12 directions, split up into 12 individual images in this cylindrically-shaped camera.

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TURN A ROOM INTO A CAMERA OBSCURA
From the George Eastman Museum, How to Turn a Room into a Camera Obscura is a delightful and easy-to-understand video on seeing the outside upside-down on the inside. Runs 4:19

GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
Located in the rolling hills of Hadleigh Country Park in Essex, England is a 260 mm lens with a view of the countryside from a Camera Obscura built by Anna Heinrich and Leon Palmer.

^{Images © Anna Heinrich and Leon Palmer}

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Instead of simply taking a photograph, Heinrich & Palmer decided to submerge a Camera Obscura into the ground, embedded on an 11.5-foot Weholite pipe into the side of a hill to be easily accessible by the nearby bike path.

^{Images © Anna Heinrich and Leon Palmer}

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“The Reveal” as they call it, was created to fit 4-5 people, and the 260 mm lens of the camera is fixed in the door, which when closed presents the live image on the end wall.

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GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
The Giant Camera at San Francisco sits on the Pacific coast between Golden Gate Park and the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s 8 inch f8 lens provides a 360° Panoramic view onto a 6 foot parabolic table.

The camera-shaped camera was built in 1946.

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The little structure is designed to resemble a big 35mm camera. It was constructed as part of the Playland Beach amusement park in 1948.

Floyd Jennings who designed two other Camera Obscuras (Garden of the Gods and Lookout Mountain) was the builder.

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SEE a marvelous four-minute video of the San Francisco Giant Camera in operation by the operator Robert Tacchetto . . . https://www.exploratorium.edu/video/camera-obscura

1912 FALLING LEAVES
An Alice Guy Blaché Solax production from her leased Gaumont studio in Flushing New York. Based on O. Henry’s The Last Leaf from four years previous in 1907. Magda Foy “the Solax Kid” is the child.

Released 15 March. The Library of Congress.

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The image projects down onto the floor as do some cameras around the world. As the camera requires a lot of light to project well-lit pictures, the best viewing in this marvellous northerly latitude city is from 1 May to 31 October.

Peak light is July and August.

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Thomas Alva Edison in 1913 while talking about his Phonograph.

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GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
One of the giant privately-operated but publicly-accessible Camera Obscuras can be found in the ICS International Camellia Garden of Excellence, located on the Trewithen Estate in Cornwall, England.

^{Photos Trewithen Estate}

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Once inside the camera you can adjust the view by slowly raising or lowering the table whilst revolving the mirror and prisms above with a handle.

^{Photos Trewithen Estate}

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In 2012, Trewithen received the tribute of becoming an ICS International Camellia Garden of Excellence – one of only 39 gardens in the world to have that honour and one of five in the UK. https://trewithengardens.co.uk/

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“The motion picture is a child that has been given life in our generation. As it grows older it will develop marvelously. We ought to be kind with it in it’s youth so that in it’s maturity it may look back upon it’s childhood without regrets.”

^{– David W. Griffith, 1924}

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From page 7 of the article Griffith spoke on the colour processes of his time as well as in 2024.

He said colour will be so perfect in the future, it will happen “as the picture is being photographed.”

Totally right. I marvel at the clarity and colour of film today.

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Griffith felt there would be fewer close ups as well. They might possibly be eliminated because the screen will be larger, p7.

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“You will walk into your favorite film theatre and see your actors appearing as twice the size you see them now, because the screens will be twice as large”

^{– David W. Griffith, 1924}

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Regarding 2024 Griffith told his readers of 1924, that directors and actors will attend schools to learn their arts.

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“families will make their albums in motion pictures instead of in tintypes and stills”

^{– David W. Griffith, 1924}

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Besides saying there won’t be sound in pictures, Griffith personally didn’t want sound, preferring music only. Notice that of his three “principal figures” of a “picture play,” Griffith does not include the actor.

And to expand on the spoken word vs. music-only prediction, he says each theatre will have an orchestra by 2024, some with “many kinds.”

Actually, orchestras will start to disappear from theatres just 4 years later in 1928.

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More predictions of movies in 2024 from David W. Griffith in 1924 include; minimum $5 tickets; Motion Picture quality; writers devoted to screenplays only; depth of realism and screen sizes and shapes (Cinerama?) all found in the 2^nd half of the write-up on p28.

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“by the time these things come to pass, there will be no such thing as a flicker in your film”

^{– David W. Griffith, 1924}

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OR, read it right here.

LARGEST PINHOLE CAMERA IN THE WORLD
LARGEST LENSLESS PHOTOGRAPH IN THE WORLD
It’s been coined The Great Picture because it is. Measuring 112 wide × 32 feet high this picture holds the Guinness World Record for the largest print photograph in the world.

But that’s not all.

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The camera that was used to take the photograph holds a record as well: for being the worlds largest.

Taken in an abandoned F-18 US military hangar in Irvine California, the hangar was made into a Pinhole Camera. That’s right, no lens.

^{All images The Legacy Project}

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The pinhole itself was 0.24 of an inch in diametre and situated 15 feet above the floor. The hole went through the hangar’s door.

^{All images The Legacy Project}

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A fascinating story but with too much to say here, please visit http://www.legacyphotoproject.com/ for the full story and all the details. All images The Legacy Project.

GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
Edinburgh’s Camera Obscura is one of the world’s oldest Camera Obscuras in existence. It provides a 360° panoramic view of old and new Edinburgh including the castle.

^{David Davies image}

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First opened in 1835 as a telescopic observatory by Maria Short, it closed briefly from 1849 to 1853 while relocating to its present location on The Royal Mile at Castle hill.

It’s one of the few giant cameras where the city view at night can be as good as the day.

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JAPANESE BENSHI STORYTELLERS
At the dawn of the 20th century theatres in Japan hired Benshi, story tellers who sat near the screen and narrated silent movies. They were descendants of kabuki jōruri, kōdan story tellers, or theatre barkers providing oral storytelling.

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Also known as The Art of Setsumei, Benshi could be accompanied by music like silent films in Western Cinema. Very reminiscent of another culture in another land, the Bengal Scroll Painting Patua who also narrated as the picture scroll is unravelled.

“Compared with the light that is projected on the screen, Setsumeisha breathe life into the projected images.”

^{– Matsuki Kyoro}

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The Maesetsu provided the Benshi with the best chance to demonstrate his/her oratorical skills. Since the playhouses were not dark during the Maesetsu, performances were both auditory and visual.

Benshi used costumes and body acting, giving the Maesetsu a comfortable atmosphere.

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A good Benshi it was said, must blend speaking with visual images, so that the audience “melted into the film.”

The book is The Benshi, Japanese Silent Film Narrators by Friends of Silent Films Association.

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As we hear from historian David Hewitt, the Benshi weren’t only in Japan during the early days of cinema. Being a new art form, some needed assistance in fully understanding what they were seeing;

DEANNA DURBIN (1921-2013)
CANADIAN BEAUTY WITH THE VOICE OF AN ANGEL
Born in Winnipeg Manitoba, Edna Mae Durbin was given a new name of Deanna for theatrical reasons. Her soprano voice was discovered early-on and at the age of 14, she secured a contract with MGM.

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Durbin was the highest-paid woman in the US and the highest-paid female film actress in the world by the age of twenty-one. Deanna acted in twenty-three films and made numerous records during her career and was known as Winnipeg’s Sweetheart.

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Deanna was turned down by Walt Disney for the voice of Snow White (1937) thinking she was “too mature sounding.” She was 14.

She herself turned down lead roles in both Oklahoma! (1943) and My Fair Lady (1956) on Broadway.

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And now, here is that angel Deanna Durbin singing Brindisi a.k.a. The Drinking Song from the Giuseppe Verdi opera La Traviata in 1937. The movie was One Hundred Men and a Girl. She was 16.

DYK, the country with more Giant Cameras Obscuras in the world is the UK, followed by Germany. The oldest Camera Obscura in Europe is in Eger, Hungary. It was installed in 1776 following the plans of the Hungarian astronomer Maximilian Hell. Images Camera Obscura World.

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The Camera in Eger is the continents oldest working Panorama projecting device. It gives a unique bird’s eye view of the town. The structure of the Camera Obscura is a simple optical tool: an enormous camera in a darkened room. The image created is projected on to a white table.

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A plane mirror with a tiltable angle rotates a cylinder and a converging lens with a long focal length. The sharpness of the image can be adjusted by turning the table with screw-threaded legs, which can be raised and lowered like a piano stool.

This Camera Obscura was previously used for scientific physics and astronomical purposes, but less so today, primarily for the education and entertainment of its users.

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Artists Cameron Bishop and Simon Reis created a Camera Obscura & housed it inside a chimney. The fireplace Camera Obscura and Stereoscope is made of pressed and polished concave steel into which the viewer places their head and looks through a divided hole into the unit.

Guerard’s ‘View of Geelong’ painted in 1856 is iconic for a number of reasons; one, its detailed interpretation of the landscape.

GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS OF THE WORLD
Gold Nugget Camera Obscura Yukon River, Dawson City, Canada
The Camera Obscura phenomenon may be ancient, but its sculptural possibilities keep it a favourite of some artists.

How about a giant gold nugget with a lens?

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Arists Holly Ward and Kevin Schmidt constructed a Camera Obscura that looks like a large gold nugget. It’s placed on the old dredge piles of Dawson City, where tailings from gold mining once accumulated.

It projects onto varnished linen, the Yukon River landscape across 180˚.

The Camera Obscura Project brings together researchers interested in the Camera Obscura, with funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

It’s based at Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia.

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GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
The Mitchell Park Camera Obscura, in Greenport, New York is located on Long Island and its optical device (lens and housing) was built entirely out of digitally fabricated components. Visitors can control the lens via a joystick.

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The Mitchell Park Camera Obscura at Greenport, New York was designed entirely as a 3D computer model, and the pieces were laser cut and assembled.

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This was the first Camera Obscura built through an all-digital approach, now common around the world. The structure was created as a custom kit of parts, fabricated without traditional “blueprint” plans.

It comprises 1,487 unique pieces.

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The Mitchell Park Camera Obscura along the waterfront on Long Island NY brings together a curious synthesis of ancient and new technology.

At 24 frames per second, a 2-hour movie requires 172,800 individual photographs. Each one of those images registers on our retina for at least 1/14th of a second. Over and over. Twenty-four every second is enough to provide smooth motion.

Even though nothing is moving.

GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
The Great Union Camera Obscura at Douglas Head on the Isle of Man is a Victorian curiosity, entertaining visitors since 1892. Unique amongst Camera Obscuras in the world because it has eleven lenses.

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The Isle of Man Camera Obscura was built in 1892 purely as an attraction for the flourishing Manx tourist industry. It was built purely as an attraction for the flourishing Manx tourist industry.

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The table has been separated by partitions to give 11 moving colour pictures of the 360-degree view which includes Douglas harbour, the lighthouse and horizon on the Irish sea.

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SEE a 1980s production of the history of The Great Union Camera Obscura at Douglas Head on the Isle of Man. Please excuse the annoying Huntley Archives logo. Speaks of 13 not 11 lenses. Runs 5:40

LOOK WHAT CINEMATOGRAPHY GAVE US
Canadian-born actress and superb tap-dancer Ruby Keeler (1909–1993) was Mrs. Al Jolson. This giant jigsaw puzzle sound stage floor is from the I Only Have Eyes for You sequence of Dames (1934) choreographed by Busby Berkeley.

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WATCH the 4 minute 45 second I Only Have Eyes for You sequence from Dames (1934) choreographed by Busby Berkeley, here from the Warner Archives

GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
Wat Phra That Lampang Luang Temple
At Lampang Luang, Ko Kha District, Lampang, Thailand sits a Camera Obscura that locals call the “reflection building.”

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There is a small white building behind the stupa, called Haw Phra Phutthabaht where a natural Camera Obscura can be seen. Unfortunately, only men are allowed to enter.

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The image is projected onto a white cloth and clearly shows the temple grounds outside. The Haw Phra Phutthabaht dates back to 1476 and it’s thought to be the oldest standing wooden structure in Thailand.

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This ancient temple compound has several interesting structures, including what is arguably the most beautiful wooden Lanna temple in Northern Thailand, the Camera Obscura or “reflection building.” 

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WALTER HUSTON (1883-1950)
Canadian Walter Huston was born near Toronto, (Orangeville) a patriarch of an acting family now into its 4th generation. He debuted on the stage in 1909 age 26, and Broadway in 1929. Walter had 56 film acting credits.

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GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
The giant Camera Obscura at Clifton Observatory, Bristol, UK sits atop the Avon Gorge along the River Avon and dates back to the 1770s when it was built as a mill.

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The Bristol Camera Obscura offers a spectacular Panoramic view since 1828 when the five-inch convex lens and sloping mirror were installed — which is connected to a large metal pole on rollers.

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The rollers rotate the mirror and visitors push this long handle to change the view. This giant camera overlooks the Clifton Suspension Bridge and the England-Wales border.

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I think the giant Camera Obscura at Clifton Observatory, Bristol is perhaps the most beautiful giant camera in the world and sits on some of the most stunning landscape there is.

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Stage performers who came to work in early silent films like Eric Campbell seen below, knew how to apply greasepaint and powder but soon realised that the make-up techniques they used for the stage were generally unsuitable for the screen.

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By 1929 Panchromatic film (left image-right half) was found to be much better than blue-sensitive Orthochromatic film (left side) at rendering colour as shades of grey.

^{Chart produced by Eastman Kodak}

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Just like the raising of the voice on the stage to project to the back of the theatre, make-up was also accentuated for the same reason: so, the actor’s faces would be seen by the audience at the back of the theatre where the cheap seats were.

This was not needed in film.

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Cinematographer Joseph LaShelle, the Director of Photography on Laura 1944, talks with Colleen Moore. He is wearing a blue-glass filter around his neck to help him judge the tonal effect of colours and how they will appear on film in black and white.

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Colleen Moore, whose real name was Kathleen Morrison, had what Ophthalmologists call heterochromia which is where one iris is brown and the other is blue. Terrifying to Cinematographers who shot her in the 1920’s.

GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
Sa Bassa Blanca Camino del Collbaix, Mallorca, Spain. Ben Jakober and Yannick Vu of The Fundacion in Mallorca commissioned a Camera Obscura converted from a bunker used during the second world war.

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The chambers sit on a hilltop overlooking the sea. The aperture was carved out of one of the metal shutters. The projection falls onto a five-metre curved wall placed perpendicular to the room.

SHIRLEY TEMPLE (1928–2014) AND THE BEATLES
Did you know that only superstar Shirley had the honour of appearing on the cover of The Beatles ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ album cover not once, not twice but in three distinct spots?

Regarding the triple appearance, the two cut-outs of the child actress were part of the general collage of celebrity photographs and figures. The third appearance is a cloth figure made by Jann Haworth (then-wife of British pop artist Peter Blake who designed the cover). She created a figure and the old lady figure she is sitting on. Haworth mentioned that she didn’t know who put the “Welcome the Rolling Stones” T-shirt on the doll, as “It was just not there one day and then the next.” The people included on the cover were chosen from lists provided by the four Beatles. Where’s Shirley? ⬇️https://sgtpepper.udiscovermusic.com/

GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
The 27th February Refugee Camp in the Western Sahara of Southern Algeria.
This travelling temporary Camera Obscura is an art project of Nilu Izadi who spent three days building it for the local school children.

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Over three days, the women of the 27th February Refugee Camp sewed this Camera Obscura tent whilst singing songs and telling stories. The people and children viewed the Pinhole Images on their friend’s uniforms and handheld linen.

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A PLANTATION ACT (1926)
Released 7 October 1926 (The Jazz Singer was released a year later October 1927). This was a Vitaphone sound-on-disk recording and starred Al Jolson singing. Runs 9:58

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1927
Taken directly from A Short History of the Movies, by Gerald Mast, published by Macmillan, New York, 1992 beginning on page 204, with a little help from the Dead Media Project, is an account of the Abel Gance Polyvision system used in some of the 1927 blockbuster film Napoleon. How it worked and how it looked.

“Among the many breakthroughs of Napoleon was its use of multiple imagery, for which Gance’s general term was Polyvision. Polyvision referred to superimposition (as many as sixteen images laid on top of one another), the split screen (as many as nine distinct images in a frame), and the multiple screen (the Triptych [was] used three times in Napoleon, although two have been lost, whereby three unsynchronized cameras and projectors and screens could create a single wide-screen image with an aspect ratio of 4:1, or three separate, side-by-side images that reinforced, reverse or played against each other in counterpoint.”

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Gerald Mast continues;

“With Polyvision and rapid cutting, Gance became the unchallenged master of montage in France. The triptych, which was later reinvented as Cinerama, was an invention whose inventor was conveniently forgotten. The final reel of Napoleon was also shot in 3-D and again in colour, though Gance disliked the results and declined to release those experimental reels, deciding at last on the triptych.”

A Triptych is any piece, usually art of some kind, that has three discrete segments, that are brought together to make a whole of the image for its own betterment. Triptych is French in origin and from what I have seen in its definition is strangely not associated with the Panorama.

GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS IN THE WORLD
The Camera Obscura in the Broicher Water Tower at Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany boasts the world’s largest pinhole camera. The former water tower is in fact a neo-Romanesque brick building from 1904, in the MüGa Park.

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The Mülheim Camera Obscura, also contains the Mülheim museum on the history of film and photography as well, with objects from the pre cinema period 1750 onwards. This includes Laterna Magicas, and vues d’optiques with over 1,100 exhibits on pre cinema.

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LOOK WHAT CINEMATOGRAPHY GAVE US
Canadian-born Marie Dressler [Cobourg, Ontario] (1868-1934) was fourteen years old when she entered the theatre. By age twenty-four she was on Broadway (1892). Thirty-one acting credits in film; two as Director, one as Producer and three as Writer.

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Dressler’s first film was Tillies Punctured Romance (1914) with Chaplin. Dressler played Tillie in two more films. Marie Dressler died of cancer following her two last films, Dinner at Eight (1933) and Tugboat Annie (1933).

GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
CASTELO DE SÃO JORGE IN LISBON
This Camera Obscura, installed in 1998 by Sinden Optical, a UK company, is an optical system of lenses and mirrors, providing a 360º full panoramic view of the city of Lisbon, in a very, very old castle.

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The equipment is installed in one of the most illustrative towers of Castelo de São Jorge. Now called Ulysses Tower, it once held some of the most important documents in the kingdom of Portugal, famously known as Torre do Tombo between the 14th and 17th centuries. Specifications:  Focal length of 7.4 metres, Lens diametre of 311mm and a 2.25 metre diametre screen (viewing table).

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The Camera Obscura in the Tower of Ulysses, St George’s Castle (Castelo de São Jorge) in Lisbon provides the highest and unsurpassed view from the top of São Jorge Hill. Declared a National Monument, the mighty 11th century fortification built during the Moorish period, has Its origins dating back to Roman times when it served as a fortress, but it was in the medieval period that it became the impressive structure we see today, fulfilling roles such as a royal palace and military barracks.

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Due to its privileged location, the castle offers breathtaking ‘miradouros’ views of Lisbon’s historic centre and the Tagus River.

^{this is not an advertisement}
THE LUMIGRAPHE
A CAMERA OBSCURA FOR YOUR SMARTPHONE
The Lumigraphe was designed and developed by fashion photographer Valmont Achalme. His bellows-style Dark Chamber let’s your smartphone piggyback while it takes pinhole-looking photos or videos.

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I think of the Lumigraphe not only as a novelty but as a paintbrush for those wanting a certain look to their photographs. Its simplistic in its design too—a simple box.

But isn’t that what Camera Obscuras were? This website explains it all.

GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
The Dumfries Museum and Camera Obscura, Scotland claims “the oldest working instrument of its kind in the world” with marvellous Panoramic views from the highest point in the area.

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This historic optical instrument was originally built as an 18th century windmill. Dumfries was built in 1798, and became an observatory in 1836 with the camera and lens installed in 1862.

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The Dumfries Museum and Camera Obscura is located in Dumfries and Galloway, (Southwest Scotland). The lens is operated by ropes and the image projects down into the chamber. The lens rotates the view, and zooms the image offering incredible Panoramic views.

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GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
The Giant Camera Obscura at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, is located on the roof of the Natural Sciences Building and presents an opportunity to see “Through the Looking Glass” to borrow a phrase from Lewis Carroll.

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The most striking aspect of the image on the viewing table is seeing cars climbing the pass on the Magaliesberg mountain range 89 Km away.

The University of Pretoria has a second Camera Obscura located at their Grahamstown campus.

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COBY UNGER’S SWALLOWS IN FLIGHT
In 2018 designer Coby Unger of Rhode Island was asked to make a piece of furniture.
What resulted was a wood turning project and specifically segmented turning. A Zoetrope emerged reminiscent of Horner’s Dadaeleum in 1834.

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In Unger’s own words, he describes how the project got started and ended up as a moving piece of animated furniture;

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Unger’s Swallows in Flight Zoetrope was made for a Furniture Society conference on the theme of integrating CNC technology and traditional fabrication methods.

Because he practices his woodworking on lathes, his Zoetrope resulted.

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Each frame of the “Party Parrot” Praxinoscope is veneer inlayed on the inside of a plywood ring. Mirrors reflect each frame of the animation as the object spins (just like Reynaud’s Praxinoscope). It was made for Childs Play at Boston’s Society of Crafts.

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SEE how the Coby Unger Swallows in Flight Dadaeleum was made. Thanks to The MIT Hobby Shop @mithobbyshop6491 at You Tube.  Runs 4:58. 

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The Santa Monica Giant Camera is distinctive as being one of the only revolving types of its kind in the world and serves as a reminder of the city’s origin as a seaside playground.

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The Santa Monica Giant Camera Obscura is located in Palisades Park overlooking the Pacific Ocean, California.

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The Santa Monica Giant Camera’s lens housing is comprised of a revolving metal turret that includes a periscope and mirror.

Santa Monica is the western-most city on the famed Route 66 (Will Rogers Memorial Highway) that ends in Chicago.

LOOK WHAT CINEMATOGRAPHY GAVE US
EDITH NORMA SHEARER (1902-1983)
Canadian-born in Montreal, Shearer began her film career in 1919 earning six Oscar nominations in all, winning once for The Divorcee (1930).

Her first film role was an uncredited spot in The Star Boarder (1919). She became Mrs. Irving Thalberg.

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Although winning a beauty contest at age 14, Norma was rejected as a Ziegfeld girl. She had 65 acting credits. Her last film was Her Cardboard Lover (1942).

Sister Athole became Mrs. Howard Hawks and Brother Douglas became MGM chief sound engineer.

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A Motion-Picture star of the Hollywood studio era, Norma was the first star created by MGM. In her first two years there, Shearer made ten films. She is on both the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Canada’s Walk of Fame (as is brother Douglas), all due to her achievements in the Motion Picture industry.

GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
Located on the top floor of the eclectic-style early 20th-century Edificio Gómez Vila, the plaza’s tallest building (115 feet), is the “Dark Chamber” at Havana offering a 360° view.

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This gift from the Council of Cadiz, Spain provides a 360-degree Panoramic view of much of Old Havana. The lens system projects a 30X magnification capability. It’s the only one of its kind in Latin America and the Caribbean, and is one of seventy-four worldwide today.

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Through a periscope (a mirror installed vertically with the ability to pivot 360 degrees) located 38.6 m in height and a set of mirrors reflecting on a concave screen of 1.80m in diameter, allows a unique view of the architectural beauty of old Havana.

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ANNUAL LYON FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS (FÊTE DES LUMIÈRES)
The Festival of Lights in Lyon, France is just one of several international light festivals that present a slide show on the façade of buildings. Botticelli’s Venus projected in a massive sized Magic Lantern projection image is one of several examples from 2023.

_{Cathedral of Saint Jean}

Every year for four nights, the Festival of Lights is held in Lyon. The FOL is an always-popular public event of projections with an impressive and eclectic lineup of artworks projected onto the facades of buildings as if they were a canvas, or screen.

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Berlin’s light-art shows draw attention to different art forms and variations of light-art.

“Berlin becomes the big glowing stage and the monuments, buildings and squares become the stars.” Berlin’s Light Festivals happen in October.

GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
Cloud Chamber for the Trees and Sky as it’s called, in Raleigh, North Carolina is a woodland Hobbit-looking Camera Obscura proving that any size room can become a darkroom where images can “hang in a chamber” as Giambattista Della Porta said.

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The squat, round hut may look like an enchanted hobbit home, but it is in fact the work of British artist Chris Drury who built the structure as a rustic Camera Obscura. This pinhole chamber has no lens, just a small hole in the roof.

The outdoor floods the interior.

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A home-made video of Cloud Chamber for the Trees and Sky by Josh and Courtney that I found on YT. Five minutes.

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The inside painted-white cement walls light up with the exterior, projecting a mirror image of the trees, clouds, and sky. The Cloud Chamber allows visitors to see the outside from the inside, using a very ancient and incredible technology called, light.

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Fay Wray was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1926. She was contracted to Paramount Pictures as a teenager, where she made more than a dozen feature films, her first film at the age of sixteen.

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Fay had 123 film roles. Her last film was Gideon’s Trumpet (1980). She was asked by Canadian director James Cameron to play Rose Dawson Calvert for his Titanic (1997) but she declined. In 2004, Wray was approached by Peter Jackson to appear in his King Kong remake but she also said no.

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Before filming of the King Kong (2005) remake began, Wray died a natural death in her sleep on 8 August, 2004 in Manhattan, five weeks before her 97th birthday.

Two days later, the lights of the Empire State Building were quenched for fifteen minutes in her honour.

GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
The Kirriemuir Camera Obscura is housed in a purpose-designed and built turret room in the Barrie Pavilion on Kirrie Hill Scotland, and has a distinct relationship with Peter Pan.

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The Kirriemuir Camera Obscura was gifted to the town by Sir James Matthew Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan, and was opened by the author on 7th June 1930. The seven-inch achromatic lens has a focal length of eight feet nine inches and is f15.

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The camera can rotate so the projected view can take in a complete 360° panorama. The table top is four feet six inches in diametre, and has a concavity curvature of 6 feet.

The Hill of Kirriemuir offers magnificent views north to the Angus Glens and the southern edge of the Cairngorms.

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SEE an 11:42 virtual tour on Kirriemuir Hill and the Barrie Pavilion Camera Obscura with the optical show beginning in earnest at the 5:40 mark.

BUSBY BERKELEY WAS INSPIRED BY BREWSTER
Sir David Brewster was a Scottish inventor and scientist who gave the world the Kaleidoscope in 1815. An optical toy that would bring millions around the world colourful moving entertainment.

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By constructing the choreography around a trio of hydraulically operated platforms, Berkeley transformed the spatial possibilities of his Kaleidoscope choreography.

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Berkeley helped make the 1930s a golden age for the Hollywood musical and my compilation of clips illustrates just how his imagination along with inspiration from Sir David, was brilliantly suited to the silver screen.

Compare;

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In closing, here are some production stills of Busby Berkeley working his Choreo-Kaleidoscopic magic both on the set, and in pre-production.

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The optical system consists of a white viewing table two meters in diametre, a mirror, and two lenses. Changing the table height changes the focal length, making it possible to focus at different distances. An f15 lens produces a good image even on a dull day.

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Be rewarded with the best Panoramic view of the Bay of Cadiz where in 1587 Drake and Cortés fought with ships ablaze. From where you’re sitting right now, take a trip to the tower’s online 360-degree Panoramic View here.

One of the best I’ve seen.

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It’s an enjoyable film mostly due to Virna Lisi, but what caught my eye was the Terry-Thomas butler character who photographs the comic strip character antics his comic-strip artist employer always acts out before going to print.

The photographs obviously are used to sketch the comic strip illustrations.

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GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
What may be the only underground Camera Obscura in Europe was a project of Jane Grant who took a WWII air raid shelter at Mount Wise, Plymouth and adapted it into a working giant camera.

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As part of a huge international festival called Balance-Unbalance, Jane was commissioned to create a piece of work specifically for a Camera Obscura;

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The camera has a 1.8 metre diametre viewing table, which gives 360-degree full Panorama views over Plymouth Sound, Mount Edgcumbe and the city centre. The project included a surround sound installation to listen as you look. Right: the original entrance.

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THIS IS NOT THE FIRST CAMERA OBSCURA IN PLYMOUTH
One hundred and twenty-six years earlier in 1827, a machinist named William Sampson built the first camera in what is called Plymouth Hoe.

It stood on top of what is now the Belvedere.

An image of Plymouth Sound was projected from the mirror at the top and angled by another mirror onto a white surface within the dimly lit room below.

The white surface was a table-cloth on a table. Pictured; an undated photograph of the Camera Obscura.

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This folded Panorama postcard shows Plymouth Sound, England in the 19th century with the Camera Obscura prominently displayed. Image Bright Bytes via Brian Moseley.

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On the left is an undated Nicholas Condy watercolour of Plymouth Sound from the Hoe, with one of the three Camera Obscuras that existed there, on the far-left hill.

I’m thinking of proclaiming Plymouth UK the Giant Camera Obscura capital of the world, having had four separate cameras all within just 126 years.

IN THE SHADOW OF NOSFERATU №1
A SYMPHONY OF HISTORY
A visit to the filming locations from Murnau’s 1922 Classic. Our host is John Campopiano @DreadCentral on X who in 2015, matched up these photos with the actual filming sites, that all still exist 103 years later as of 2025.

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Researched, Written and Photographed by John Campopiano. Visit John’s website here.

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just like the undead count, Nosferatu kept getting out of his coffin at night and showing up in American theatres

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Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s classic was an unauthorized Stoker version. Rights to the novel not obtained, names had to be changed: Dracula became Nosferatu and Count Dracula became Count Orlok. It premiered in March at the Marble Hall of the Berlin Zoological Garden. US audiences had to wait to see the film until 1929. – _{Information Domagoj Valjak}

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Stoker’s widow Florence Balcombe sued Prana Film GmbH (Jofa-Atelier Berlin-Johannisthal) for copyright infringement and sent them into receivership. Nosferatu had been their only film.

Prana founders Enrico Dieckmann and occultist Albin Grau managed to escape prosecution by declaring bankruptcy. The court found in favour of Florence and ruled all copies of the film be destroyed.

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WATCH the original NOSFERATU at Look. Original tints, updated intertitles. Runs 1:28:40 .

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ALTERNATIVELY watch NOSFERATU A Symphony of Horror in BW and updated intertitles.

THE GEORGE EASTMAN MUSEUM TWO-COLOUR KODACHROME
Test shot No. III, actress Mae Murray photographed by John G. Capstaff in 1922. Restored through the Haghefilm/George Eastman House Fellowship Project, 2009 by Sabrina Negri, graduate student of the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation.

Mae Murray from 1922. One of four actresses chosen for screen test No. III using two strip Kodachrome invented in 1913 by John George Capstaff at the Kodak Research Laboratories, Fort Lee, NJ. Other actresses photographed in No. III but not shown here were Hope Hampton, Mary Eaton, and an unidentified woman and child.

LOOK WHAT CINEMATOGRAPHY GAVE US
CANADIAN-BORN MACK SENNETT (1880-1960)
Born as Mikall Sinnott in Danville Quebec, Sennett started his career at Biograph and went on to become a film actor, director, producer, and studio head.

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Sennett initiated what became known as slapstick comedy with the Keystone Cops. He produced 1,118 films; 361 as actor; 309 as director; 98 credits as writer and 1 as Cinematographer. His first work was as actor (1908).

In less than two years he was directing.

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For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Sennett was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6712 Hollywood Boulevard, and a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame.

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Mack Sennett also received an honourary Oscar for his comedic contribution to film. Sennett’s Walk of Fame star is located on the South side of the 6700 block of Hollywood Boulevard.

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RELOCATED MARKER IN ECHO PARK SALUTES MACK SENNETT’S FIRST FILM STUDIO

“They had come to 1712 Glendale Blvd. in Echo Park to unveil a plaque on the site of Mack Sennett’s first studio — the place where, starting in 1912, the prolific producer and director once known as the King of Comedy created the bumbling Keystone Cops, popularized the pie in the face, made stars of Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand, and first put Chaplin on film.”

Date Alert: 2015.02.27 L.A. Times story here.

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Although certainly not pre cinema and quite beyond post cinema, I felt I should share Mr. Barlow’s thoughts on taking a photograph on a potato slice at age eleven.

Afterall, if dried skim milk, potash and pee can be used . . . . .

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However, the most significant breakthroughs for lanternists occurred a thousand years later. Optics, both in theory and practise, sparked much attention and scientific excitement. And yet here, in this modern age of ours, we still see the Magic Lantern all around us.

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From about the 1960’s up to today the lantern medium experienced a renaissance as collectors hunted for slides and lanterns and the older the better.

Suffice to say, optical projection will never disappear.

You have reached the end of

THE HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF CINEMATOGRAPHY

An Illustrated Chronological History of the Development of Motion Pictures Leading
to the Discovery of Cinematography in the 1800s

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This work is ongoing.

New additions will be added as discoveries and new information is uncovered.

These additions will be placed in their proper chronological spot and in the correct chapter according to the year the material pertains to.

Please check the appropriate chapter when returning.

CHAPTER ONE | TOP | WELCOME

Welcome	About	Introduction	Chapter One beginning of time – 999 AD
Chapter Two 1000 AD – 1399	Chapter Three 1400 – 1599	Chapter Four 1600 – 1649	Chapter Five 1650 – 1699
Chapter Six 1700 – 1749	Chapter Seven 1750 – 1799	Chapter Eight 1800 – 1819	Chapter Nine 1820 – 1829
Chapter Ten 1830 – 1839	Chapter Eleven 1840 – 1849	Chapter Twelve 1850 – 1859	Chapter Thirteen 1860 – 1869
Chapter Fourteen 1870 – 1879	Chapter Fifteen 1880 – 1884	Chapter Sixteen 1885 – 1889	Chapter Seventeen 1890 – 1894
Chapter Eighteen 1895 – 1899	Chapter Nineteen 1900 + post cinema	Chapter Twenty 1911 +	Copyright
HOTDOC Internet Archive Channel	HOTDOC X Channel	HOTDOC You Tube Channel

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