Abstract

The camera re-invented theatre, prior to photography, then, frame by frame, shifted still imagery into moving film. Before the advent of camera obscura there was no quadrilateral framing of scene whilst, cardage conceived for the painted image parodied the arched window. Within the camera’s throw of light, dramatic narrative came to be viewed introspectively, in a darkened room, the stage bathed in light and bellowing sound. Prior to the lens nothing was out of focus, the scale of one figure relative to another a matter of cultural and hierarchical significance, not distance - the lens, positioned within a camera obscura, changed all of that. More than geometrics enabling portable application of perspective, that of camera and screen compressing three to two dimensions, led one-point perspective to the "duke’s chair," centre, back of the theatre. Replacement of the third with the fourth dimension extended a period of time to the life of a fixed image to its physical support. Mutability of sequential images rendered movement editable. Nonetheless, the event of encapsulating a tiny piece of the real maps photography closer to chaos than all other forms of representation, and the camera significantly posited to create theatre out of everyday life.