Lesson 2 - Hockney - Lens

This video tells the story of David Hockney and the secret knowledge of a lens. The only equipment you need for a lens is a piece of glass. David Hockney, the most celebrity living artist, reveals that 400 years before the photograph was first invented, artists were using simple cameras to capture stunningly realistic images on canvas, through the use of a lens or even more simpler than that, your eyes and in this video he specifically researches how Old Master painters caught nature through a lens or mirror.

"Photographs monopolize reality and truth, just as paintings did in the past" This was said by Hockney explaining that even a photograph you may have taken does not compare to what you see through your own eyes.

Something that was said in this video that I found interesting were the descriptive words used for paintings such as real, natural, photographic, and true to life. Which is based around Hockney's biggest question which is how did painters capture such value in their paintings? The main things they had in the 15-18th century were their eyes and a piece of glass, so how were they able to capture such intricate detail, for example of a piece of armor, patent fabric, or chandelier, without a camera and other technology that we have today? And that was with a camera obscura.

One of the things I saw in the video that interested me was how Hockney demonstrated how easy it really was to just use a piece of glass as a lens without anything else involved. This was shown in the scene in his stage in Hollywood with two dancers and he placed the glass in a holder and closed the curtains around it to darken the room and the light reflecting through the glass reflected the image of the dancers dancing against the wall, although the image was upside down.

I liked this video for the demonstrations shown in order to back up the evidence given, which to me was a little better than a couple of the other videos because I was able to see how it actually worked, rather than just a theory on how it worked.




This is an example of a camera obscura and how the image was reflected through the lens and onto the wall.