Nature Exposed: Photography as Eyewitness in Victorian Science

by Jennifer Tucker

Overview

In Nature Exposed, Jennifer Tucker studies the intersecting trajectories of photography and modern science in late Victorian Britain. She examines the role of photograph as witness in scientific investigation and explores the interplay between photography and scientific authority.

Almost immediately after the invention of photography in 1839, photographs were characterized as offering objective access to reality—unmediated by human agency, political ties, or philosophy. This mechanical objectivity supposedly eliminated judgment and interpretation in reporting and picturing scientific results.

But photography is a labor-intensive process that allows for, and sometimes requires, manipulation. In the late nineteenth century, the nature of this new technology sparked a complex debate about scientific practices and the value of the photographic images in the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge.

Recovering the controversies and commentary surrounding the early creation of scientific photography and drawing on a wide range of new sources and critical theories, Tucker establishes a greater understanding of the rich visual culture of Victorian science and alternative forms of knowledge, including psychical research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421410937
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	08/15/2013
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jennifer Tucker is an associate professor of history, science in society, and gender studies at Wesleyan University. Her work has been published in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Boston Globe.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Constructing Science and Brotherhood in Photographic Culture
2. Testing the Unity of Science and Fraternity
3. Acquiring a Scientific Eye
4. Photography of the Invisible
5. Photographic Evidence and Mass Culture
Epilogue: Photographic Evidence and Mass Culture
Notes
Essay on Sourcess
Index

What People are Saying About This

Elizabeth Edwards

This extraordinarily rich study constitutes a landmark in writing about the relations between photography, science, and ideas of truth. Its use of nineteenth-century journal sources, too often overlooked by historians, to extrapolate the complex and nuanced negotiation of truth values invested in photography, not only allows a clear nineteenth-century voice to emerge, but provides us with an invaluable model for further studies.

— Elizabeth Edwards, University of the Arts London

Bernard Lightman

A pioneering study of the establishment of the photograph as an accurate representation of nature which is based on thorough scholarship combined with imaginative insight. Tucker ranges across a breathtaking array of scientific fields, including meteorology, microbiology, and astronomy, while throwing new light on the scientific amateur, spiritualism, gender, visual culture, imperialism, and Victorian popular culture.

— Bernard Lightman, York University

From the Publisher

A pioneering study of the establishment of the photograph as an accurate representation of nature which is based on thorough scholarship combined with imaginative insight. Tucker ranges across a breathtaking array of scientific fields, including meteorology, microbiology, and astronomy, while throwing new light on the scientific amateur, spiritualism, gender, visual culture, imperialism, and Victorian popular culture.
—Bernard Lightman, York University

This extraordinarily rich study constitutes a landmark in writing about the relations between photography, science, and ideas of truth. Its use of nineteenth-century journal sources, too often overlooked by historians, to extrapolate the complex and nuanced negotiation of truth values invested in photography, not only allows a clear nineteenth-century voice to emerge, but provides us with an invaluable model for further studies.
—Elizabeth Edwards, University of the Arts London

Editorial Reviews

The strength of the book lies in Tucker's analysis of the broad historical context in which scientific photography emerged in Victorian Britain.
—Science

Tucker's book is a challenging exploration of how, when, and under what conditions photography came to be seen as an enhanced representational tool for a range of scientific practices in Victorian Britain.
—Ian Burney, American Historical Review

Nature Exposed tells us about our past, but has current resonance in our visually based culture and is a timely, interesting, and valuable book.
—Frances Robertson, Technology and Culture

A useful book.
—Daniel M. Fox, Nuncius

Tucker's brilliant study enlarges traditional concepts of photographic evidence by tying together the social processes and institutions that created the scientific photograph to the shift in the professional development of science itself.
—Marta Braun, Victorian Studies

The premise and the methodology of the book are sound, and its conclusions important.
—Kelley Wilder, History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences

Meticulous at every turn, Nature Exposed on nearly every page contains a paragraph that would, on its own, be a superb subject for a doctoral thesis—postgraduates take notes. For the rest of us, it is an impressive, long-overdue critical companion to the early history of scientific photography in Britain that leaves few stones unturned. It is also an enjoyable read, as it delves into some of the quirkier and more entertaining chapters in photographic history.
—British Journal for the History of Science

By examining a wide range of books, articles, and photographs, Tucker writes a history of photography that skilfully maps out the social and professional networks that connected science and photographic practices.
—Mary Hunter, Oxford Art Journal

As Jennifer Tucker argues in this densely researched book, evaluating evidence involves social values—class, gender, and race—as well as scientific protocols.
—Patrizia Di Bello, Bulletin of the History of Medicine

A solid and very readable work of scholarship, drawing widely upon periodicals and other neglected print sources, and happily enhanced with reproductions of the many compelling and curious images that it has uncovered and analyzes.
—Daniel Brown, Journal of British Studies

From the Publisher

By examining a wide range of books, articles, and photographs, Tucker writes a history of photography that skilfully maps out the social and professional networks that connected science and photographic practices.

Oxford Art Journal - Mary Hunter

Nature Exposed tells us about our past, but has current resonance in our visually based culture and is a timely, interesting, and valuable book.

Technology and Culture - Frances Robertson

Meticulous at every turn, Nature Exposed on nearly every page contains a paragraph that would, on its own, be a superb subject for a doctoral thesis—postgraduates take notes. For the rest of us, it is an impressive, long-overdue critical companion to the early history of scientific photography in Britain that leaves few stones unturned. It is also an enjoyable read, as it delves into some of the quirkier and more entertaining chapters in photographic history.

British Journal for the History of Science

A solid and very readable work of scholarship, drawing widely upon periodicals and other neglected print sources, and happily enhanced with reproductions of the many compelling and curious images that it has uncovered and analyzes.

Journal of British Studies - Daniel Brown

The strength of the book lies in Tucker's analysis of the broad historical context in which scientific photography emerged in Victorian Britain.

Science

A useful book.

Nuncius - Daniel M. Fox

Tucker's brilliant study enlarges traditional concepts of photographic evidence by tying together the social processes and institutions that created the scientific photograph to the shift in the professional development of science itself.

Victorian Studies - Marta Braun

As Jennifer Tucker argues in this densely researched book, evaluating evidence involves social values—class, gender, and race—as well as scientific protocols.

Bulletin of the History of Medicine - Patrizia Di Bello

"The strength of the book lies in Tucker's analysis of the broad historical context in which scientific photography emerged in Victorian Britain."

Science

The premise and the methodology of the book are sound, and its conclusions important.

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences - Kelley Wilder

Tucker's book is a challenging exploration of how, when, and under what conditions photography came to be seen as an enhanced representational tool for a range of scientific practices in Victorian Britain.

American Historical Review - Ian Burney

[Tucker's] discussion of astronomy is layered and comprehensive.

— Mary Hunter

Oxford Art Journal

The premise and the methodology of the book are sound, and its conclusions important.

— Kelley Wilder

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences

Brilliant study.

— Marta Braun

Victorian Studies

A useful book.

— Daniel M. Fox

Nuncius

A timely, interesting, and valuable book.

— Frances Robertson

Technology and Culture

A challenging exploration.

— Ian Burney

American Historical Review