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Seeing Through Cameras

Updated: Apr 25

Unravel the enigma of cameras. Explore the many facets of seeing through different camera types and how they help us see.


Below curriculum is copyright protected.

All rights reserved by Gozde Efe.


Gathering 1: The Camera Is A Box, The Giant Box – Camera Obscura





What does the world look like when you are inside of a camera?




Is there a better way to understand a camera than stepping inside one? We enter the body of the camera — a dark room, a light hole, a world flipped upside-down. Walk through the lens. Sit in the shadow. 

Theme: Walking into the original camera


Concepts:

  • Light projection

  • Inversion of the image

  • Cameras as boxes (rooms)


Experience:

  • Visit or view a demonstration of the Camera Obscura in San Francisco

  • Observe real-time projection of moving images on a surface

  • Sketch what is seen or photograph the experience



Gathering 2: The Camera is a Box – Cardboard & Pinhole Cameras


How does building a camera change the way we understand photography?


Theme: Building cameras


Concepts:

  • Light-tight boxes

  • Exposure and film

  • Initial concept of the camera


Activities:


  • Construct a DIY pinhole camera using cardboard and light-sensitive paper or film

  • Learn how light enters and exposes an image

  • Take a photo and develop it (darkroom or solar printing)


Gathering 3: Seeing Through The Phone Camera – Open Sensor Seeing


How does technology filter or distort our way of seeing?



Theme: Digital seeing and the sensor’s eye


Concepts:

  • Digital sensors vs. film

  • Real-time light capture

  • Overexposure, glitches, and light leaks


Activities:


  • Use phone cameras with exposed or damaged sensors (or filters that simulate this)

  • Experiment with lens distortion, reflections, macro/micro views

  • Explore apps that mimic infrared or long exposure



Gathering 4: Broken Cameras & Deconstructed Lenses

What can we discover by seeing through broken cameras and lenses?



Theme: Seeing through "broken" cameras


Concepts:


  • Imperfect, unique, unexpedtedly interesting optics

  • Light refraction and flare

  • Creative seeing


Activities:


  • Disassemble broken cameras and lenses

  • Look through cracked lenses or prisms

  • Create image experiments using broken or altered tools

  • Begin exploring concepts of focus and blur





For full curriculum, email gozde@seeingchool.org.


Seeing Focus     

What is the focus in seeing? How does a human eye focus? How far is a hawk's eye focus? How do cameras focus? 



Seeing Near & Farther 


Can you see your finger if you put it on your nose? : ) If so, how does it look? Discover seeing near and farther.


Ask anything at gozde@seeingschool.org




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