Output details

Photography and Science

This monograph explores the symbiotic relationship between the development of photographic practices and the development of scientific practices throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is highly original in its approach. It utilizes theories about the role of practices in scientific output and the material and archival agency of photographs, it overturns previous scholarship that viewed photographic output in terms of the image content and the scientific field of study – biology, astronomy, archaeology and so on. In this way, it shows the sharing of photographic practices between fields, and the application of scientific practices to photographic research. One of the concepts underpinning the book, the difference between the photography of science and science of photography, has since been taken up in studies in the history of science and photography (Mirjam Brusius, Experimente Ohne Ausgang: Talbot, Fenton und die Fotografie am British Museum um 1850, in Fotogeschichte 122, 2011). The organisation of the book into chapters addressing the practices of observation, experiment and archiving allows engagement with previously unknown or neglected archives of science, including the print archive, and the use of photographs exchanged in scientific correspondence. It was intended to bridge the science and art audiences and has done so, receiving reviews in peer-reviewed journals like The Lancet (23 May 2009, 373:9677, p.1754) and Visual Resources (27:4, 2011) as well as the photography journal, Source.