Friday, October 2, 2009

The camera obscura pictures in miniature

Sometimes browsing through a regular miniature catalog can inspire you. Are you familiar with the camera obscura? Before the regular picture camera was invented, people could take a "shadow" or silhouette of their profile to display in frames, as we do with regular pictures. See an example HERE. You can even find frames with silhouettes pictures in miniature that are commercially produced.

But I have a problem with such portraits. Who are the people in them? As the same with antique photographs, why would I want a stranger in the sanctuary of my dollhouse? So, I search for a person that I would like to hang on my dollhouse. My vampire friend is very fond of Thomas Jefferson and his life accomplishments. Did you know that Jefferson owned a camera obscura, and that there is a wall full of frames with silhouttes pictures of his family hanging in one room of Monticello? Well, I found a beautiful silhouette (it even has his signature!), and framed it:

This is how it looks like hanged in my dollhouse's parlor:


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