Camera obscura – obiektywność utracona
Camera obscura: lost objectivity

Summary/Abstract: The article is focused on the camera obscura, a widely known optical instrument which presumably was used by 17th- and 18th- century artists (ill. 1). The author treats the subject not as a technical tool helpful in drawing a picture, but rather as a “figure” and metaphor of the particular pictorial status of images. This metaphor of the camera obscura reflects objectivity and immediacy analogous to images which are pertinent to those created inside it. The author tries to prove that the widespread view of photography as objective and direct is only a variation of a much older point of view on the representational status of certain pictures which was revived by the invention in the 19th century of the camera.

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