Picturing Empire: Photography and the Visualization of the British Empire

by James R. Ryan

Overview

Coinciding with the extraordinary expansion of Britain's overseas empire under Queen Victoria, the invention of photography allowed millions to see what they thought were realistic and unbiased pictures of distant peoples and places. This supposed accuracy also helped to legitimate Victorian geography's illuminations of the "darkest" recesses of the globe with the "light" of scientific mapping techniques.

But as James R. Ryan argues in Picturing Empire, Victorian photographs reveal as much about the imaginative landscapes of imperial culture as they do about the "real" subjects captured within their frames. Ryan considers the role of photography in the exploration and domestication of foreign landscapes, in imperial warfare, in the survey and classification of "racial types," in "hunting with the camera," and in teaching imperial geography to British schoolchildren.

Ryan's careful exposure of the reciprocal relation between photographic image and imperial imagination will interest all those concerned with the cultural history of the British Empire.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226732336
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	04/11/1998
Edition description:	1
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.00(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Exploring Darkness
2. Framing the View
3. The Art of Campaigning
4. Hunting with the Camera
5. 'Photographing the Natives'
6. Visual Instruction
7. Towards a Conclusion
References
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Demonstrates that photographic practices and aesthetics played a crucial role in expressing the ideologies of imperialism driving British exploration and colonization. Shows how Imperial Britain produced and projected its imaginative geography through photography, using detailed case studies of specific people, places, and practices linked to broader themes and ideological frameworks. Considers the collaboration of photography, geography, and anthropology, and raises questions about the shifting status and mutable meaning of all historical photographs. Includes high-quality b&w photos. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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