Photography has lost its magic since digital camera technique makes it easy and available to anyone, everywhere, whether you own a camera or a mobile phone. The old exposure camera still suggested some form of craftmanship, in the play with angle, light and shutter time, etc. Now, photography has become so commonplace that many people do not even carefully look what pictures they shoot. Why look now, we'll look later.

The camera obscura an age-old invention, known to the ancients, and used since the Renaissance, had its hey-day in the Victorian Age. While a camera obscura can be constructed of various sizes, nowadays the most spectacular experience in to visit and sit inside the camera.

Such a camera consists of a dark room, in which the outside, surrounding reality is projected on a table, through a system of lenses and mirrors. The lense, mounted on a kind of periscope, can be turned 360 degrees. In recent years, there is quite a revival of interest in the camera obscura. The experience is described as meditative, magic.

Secrets of the camera obscura by David Knowles is a novella which explores the history of the camera obscura. Through alternating episodes, we read about the history of the camera obscura, starting with the invention in China, the use of the camera by Leonardo Da Vinci and Johannes Vermeer, who may have used it. These accounts are fictionalized.

The other story line, is the murder of an Italian woman, a regular visitor of the camera obscura in an American city. The story is written from the perspective of the owner / caretaker of the camera, who apparently observed the murder from within the concealment of the camera.

The two story-lines are connected through violent murders, involving decapitation, the use of the camera obscura, and the motive of concealment. Another theme which is featured is that of betrayal.

What have I learned so far from the story of Mo Ti and Chuang Chou? Many things. First of all, that the betrayal of a friend's trust is at the root of the problem, and at the heart of our story. (p.54)

The end of the story is a bit obscure, perhaps fitting the setting. ( )

An odd little book, a fiction focusing on a device that helps create visual art, and in this case somehow leads to murder. ( )