A display apparatus includes a pointing device including a light emitting unit and a light receiving unit to detect a position of an object inserted into an optical path between the light emitting unit and a light receiving unit, wherein the pointing device includes an optical intensity store unit configured to store an optical intensity distribution detected by the light receiving unit in a memory unit upon detection of a change in a position or location of a display, and a position calculating unit configured to detect the position of the object by detecting a dark point in the optical intensity distribution caused by the insertion of the object based on a difference between the optical intensity distribution stored in the memory unit and an optical intensity distribution subsequently detected by the light receiving unit.