Precursor to the modern camera, the camera obscura, is a light-tight device with a small hole on one side. The hole enables light to pass through, and an image to be reproduced upside down. Rather then using just a hole, a lens is often added to create a more focused image.
In the past, artist used the camera obscura as a tool to capture difficult scenes in a realistic manner. Contemporary artists take advantage of the way in which the camera obscura allows the living world to be projected on a surface plane. Many contemporary artists use the camera obscura in innovative ways. Today, the camera obscura seems like such a simple device, but artists are able to take something which seems so elementary and transform it into something extremely innovative.
Through the use of a camera obscura, artist Abelardo Morell, is able to transform interior spaces. Morell is able to turn a room into a camera. For example, in his piece, Camera Obscura Image of Houses Across the Street in Our Bedroom, he captures and inverted image of the street onto his bedroom wall.

Another contemporary artist, Maggie Ross, also uses camera obscura. She states that her camera obscura installations “explore the inextricable link between the spaces we inhabit and the surrounding environment, as well the relationships between architecture, landscape, and the human body." Unlike Morell’s use of camera obscura, Ross’ use of the camera obscura is more interactive. Viewers are able to experience the inverted images projected onto their own bodies. People are also able to become part of the projected images by standing outside of the installation, therefore becoming what is being projected.
Another artists, Shi Guorui, works with camera obscura to create large scale photographs. Guorui chooses iconic locations to photograph, such as The Great Wall, Mount Everest, and Hong Kong. In some of his earlier works, Guorui uses already existing buildings as his camera. But in his more recent work, such as his work capturing Mount Everest, he constructed his own camera obscura. Guorui removes activity from his images providing the viewer with a “surreal vision.” Guoriui told the New York Times that “early on [he] was interested in these technical details, but what’s important to [him] now is the process.” It is his interest in the process of creating an image that has lead him to become such a great photographer.

It’s amazing to think how far the camera has come. Although the camera has advanced throughout the years, many artists continue to use the camera obscura.
http://www.mocp.org/collections/permane ... elardo.php
http://nowherelimited.com/imposing_view ... a_obscura/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_obscura
http://www.chinesecontemporary.com/shi_guorui.htm