A common error is to think of medical photography as just one new specialty among many, yet medical illustration is as old as medicine itself and the present is only a very short interval of time between the past and the future. [1]

This is an invariable truth that paintings and illustrations are as old as mankind itself and photography itself is too young to compare. The precursor of photography was the Camera Obscura (Latin; camera for “vaulted chamber/room”, obscura for “dark”), which was invented only in 1457 and was mostly used by artists only as an aid to painting. Hence, the history of medical illustration cannot be ignored, as it has grown over a period of time that is much older the than concept of medical photography.

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