
Three optical devices that I made a few days after seeing Serios perform.
I was able to produce images similar to those made by Serios4>
If you replaced the image of the woman with a small transparency of some other subject, you could make a photo of that subject. For the technically minded reader of this essay, the term for this kind photography is afocal system of imaging. The sharpest image is made when the camera lens is on the infinity focus setting. Of course Serios did not want a sharp image.
My source to make these three optical devices was one old discarded 8 mm movie camera lens. When I disassembled it I had several simple lens elements. The focal lengths of the lenses were 6 to 8 mm. A novelty key chain gadget might have worked better but I did not have one.
A likely source of an optical device for Serios was a novelty key chain gadget, popular at the time. If you held the small tube to your eye you would see a mildly risque image of a woman. If you held the tube to a Polaroid camera lens you could make a photograph of the image in the tube.
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lContents l Homel l Introduction l 1 l 2 l 3 l 4 l 5 l 6 l 7 l 8 l 9 l 10 l 11 l 12 l 13 l 14 l 15 l 16 l 17 l 18 l