Science in Sight

Monika Burri

ISBN 10: 3858813958 / ISBN 13: 9783858813954

Published by Scheidegger und Spiess AG, Verlag, CH, 2014

About this Item

Since its early days, photography has been both a tool of and subject for scientific research. Developments in photochemistry, camera construction and lense refinement made photography an extremely successful mass medium. At the same time, photography served scientific research as a key medium for observation, documentation, education and communication.ETH-Bibliothek, the main library at ETH Zurich, is holding in its Image Archive vast collections of photographs. Among them is the complete collection of the university's own Photographic Institute, an independent service and research unit between 1886 and 1979. This new book documents both the main aspects of scientific photography, illustrating the research of many disciplines while being the subject of basic research itself. Using a rich selection of images, ranging from astronomical and micro-photography, to laboratory situations and carefully illuminated experimental installations. The introductory essay investigates the interplay between photography and the world of science, and tells the story and changing role of the Photographic Institute.Text in English and German.

Seller Inventory # LU-9783858813954

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Science in Sight
• Publisher: Scheidegger und Spiess AG, Verlag, CH
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3858813958
• ISBN 13: 9783858813954
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 666 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Since its inception, photography has been both a tool and a subject of research. As developments in photochemistry and camera construction made it an increasingly popular mass medium, it also served as an important means of scientific documentation, education, and communication. Science in Sight documents both kinds of scientific photography with pictures from the vast image archive at the ETH-Bibliothek, the main library at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zürich.

Monika Burri has selected a rich array of images, including astronomical and microphotography, laboratory situations, carefully illuminated experimental installations, and more. In her introductory essay, she investigates the intersection of photography and science as well as the changing role of ETH Zürich’s Photographic Institute. (The institute, whose little-examined archive supplies many of this volume’s previously unpublished images, served ETH Zürich as an independent service and research unit from 1886 until 1979.)

The third volume in Verlag Scheidegger and Spiess’s Pictorial Worlds series, Science in Sight will appeal to anyone interested in the history of photography.

About the Author

Monika Burri is a research archivist at the Staatsarchiv Aargau in Switzerland.