I say that the front of a building-or any open piazza or field-which is illuminated by the sun has a dwelling opposite to it, and if, in the front which does not face the sun, you make a small round hole, all the illuminated objects will project their images through that hole and be visible inside the dwelling on the opposite wall which should be made white; and there, in fact, they will be upside down, and if you make similar openings in several places in the same wall you will have the same result from each. Hence the images of the illuminated objects are all everywhere on this wall and all in each minutest part of it. The reason, as we clearly know, is that this hole must admit some light to the said dwelling, and the light admitted by it is derived from one or many luminous bodies. If these bodies are of various colors and shapes the rays forming the images are of various colors and shapes, and so will the representations be on the wall.
-Leonardo da Vinci
Photo Info:
“Camera Obscura: Outside In”
Photo By: Darius Kuzmickas
Excerpt from:
Leonardo da Vinci, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, ed. Jean Paul Richter (NY: Dover Publications, 1970)
More Info:
Pinhole Photography: From Historic Technique to Digital Application
by: Eric Renner