We've reached peak lens flare. Vox's Phil Edwards explains how it happened. Follow Phil Edwards and Vox Almanac on Facebook for more: https://www.facebook.com/philedwardsinc1/ Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO Lens flare: it's familiar from the very shiny work of J.J. Abrams, but it goes far beyond his flare-strewn canon. Lens flare has a long history and a lot of different meanings. Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com to get up to speed on everything from Kurdistan to the Kim Kardashian app. Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Twitter: http://goo.gl/XFrZ5H Or on Facebook: http://goo.gl/U2g06o