A New Chapter: Introducing Camera Clara

FotogRAFia is becoming Camera Clara, with a new exclusive dotcom domain cameraclara.com

We’re growing, and with that growth comes a little change. I’m excited to announce that we’re getting a brand refresh! The content you love stays exactly the same, but we’re updating our name, logo, and color theme to better reflect where we’re headed.

Goodbye FotogRAFia, hello…

Although name “FotogRAFia” looks good on screen (with the pun to RAF in there and everything), it was confusing for English speakers to pronounce at photowalks and in person, because people usually thought it was “Photographia”, with “Ph”, leading to confusion and wrong links.

Fotografia means “Photography” in English, and since I have both English and Portuguese speaking friends in this community, I wanted something more bilingual and accessible. That’s why I’m changing the name to Camera Clara.

And here’s the really exciting part: I got incredibly lucky and found that cameraclara.com was available!

The name is inspired by the camera lucida¹, an optical drawing device used by artists and early photographers to trace images. “Clara” means “bright” or “clear” in Latin, Portuguese, and Spanish, so it carries that same spirit while being my own take on the concept, while being easily to speak in English (it’s a person’s name).

I think it’s a beautiful name with deep roots in photography history and philosophy.

A camera lucida is an optical device used as a drawing aid by artists and microscopists. By looking through the prism in its standard, a user sees an optical superimposition of the subject positioned in front of the device over the surface below. This allows the artist to duplicate key points of the scene on the drawing surface, thus aiding in the accurate rendering of perspective.

The name also carries special meaning because of Roland Barthes’ influential book Camera Lucida (which I super recommend reading if you are serious into photography), a deeply personal meditation on photography, memory, and loss.

Barthes explores what makes photographs powerful and moving, examining the relationship between the photographer, the subject, and the viewer. It’s one of those books that changes how you see photographs forever, and it felt right to honor that legacy with the name for this publication.

Also, 500 subscribers!

I’m so grateful to each of you for being here and supporting this journey. Reaching 500 subscribers is a milestone I didn’t think would come so quickly, and it means the world to me. Thank you for being part of this community. Here’s to the next 500!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

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1. Camera Lucida history