Reasoned and Unreasoned Images

Josh Ellenbogen

ISBN 10: 0271053267 / ISBN 13: 9780271053264

Published by Penn State Press Sep 2013, 2013

About this Item

Neuware - Examines three projects in late nineteenth-century scientific photography: the endeavors of Alphonse Bertillon, Francis Galton, and Etienne-Jules Marey. Develops new theoretical perspectives on the history of photographic technology, as well as the history of scientific imaging more generally.

Seller Inventory # 9780271053264

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Reasoned and Unreasoned Images
• Publisher: Penn State Press Sep 2013
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0271053267
• ISBN 13: 9780271053264
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 251W x 178H x 20D millimeters 251 millimeters width by 178 millimeters height by 20 millimeters depth
• Weight: 567 grams

About this title

Synopsis

In the last decades of the nineteenth century, photography underwent one of the most momentous transformations in its history, a renegotiation of the camera&;s relationship to the visible world. Reasoned and Unreasoned Images considers in detail the work of three photographic investigators who developed new uses for the medium that centered on &;the photography of the invisible&;: Alphonse Bertillon, Francis Galton, and Etienne-Jules Marey. Bertillon attempted to establish a &;science of identity&; by making photographic records of criminal bodies. Galton may be said to have taken photographs of ideas: he sought to create accurate yet abstract images of such entities as &;the criminal&; and &;the lunatic.&; And Marey, a physiologist, created photographic visualizations of nonvisible events&;the positions through which bodies pass so quickly that they cannot be seen. Ellenbogen approaches the work of these photographers as a means to develop new theoretical perspectives on questions of broad interest in the humanities: the relation of photographs to the world and their use as agents of knowledge, the intersections between artistic and scientific images, the place of painting and drawing in photography&;s historical employment, and the use of imaging technologies in systems of social control and surveillance.

About the Author

Josh Ellenbogen is Director of Graduate Studies and Assistant Professor of the History of Art at the University of Pittsburgh.