[rohrpost] A. Broeckmann: Visual Economy of Individuals - online!

[Andreas Broeckmann <abroeck@transmediale.de>]

[the PhD thesis which i finished early in 1995 is finally online; after
many delays and doubts about a book publication i decided to make the text
available on the web so that people can take a look at it and use its
research results which include some, i believe, original interpretations of
material on (mainly scientific) 19th-century photography; a familiar
problem was that, the longer the manuscript was lying around, the more i
thought it would need serious revisions to make a worthwhile book out of
it; i'm afraid it might require a future year of unemployment to write that
up ... there is no index, but the table of contents is pretty detailed, and
searching through the different chapters will help. i'm grateful to Larisa
Blazic from novi sad <lab@EUnet.yu> for html-ising the whole thing and
giving it a clear and, i think, easily navigable design. mistakes, incl.
typos, are obviously my responsibility, and i would be glad if you reported
them. relieved - abroeck]



PhD Thesis
Andreas Broeckmann
1995

Title
A Visual Economy of Individuals:
The Use of Portrait Photography in the Nineteenth-Century Human Sciences.

http://www.v2.nl/abroeck/phd/

Abstract
This study investigates the uses of portrait photography in the
nineteenth-century sciences of Anthropology, Psychiatry, and Criminal
Anthropology, and discusses these practices in relation to applications of
photography in Criminalistics, and to the portraits made by high street
photographers. The main examples for these photographic practices are taken
from various European countries, including France, Britain, Germany,
Austria, and Italy, and are discussed and compared in their respective
social, historical, and scientific contexts. Among the sources which are
being examined are the British manual Notes & Queries and the works of
Gustav Fritsch in Anthropology, the writings of John Conolly, Henri Legrand
du Saulle and other psychiatrists, the publications and collections of
criminologists like Cesare Lombroso, Enrico Ferri, and Alexandre
Lacassagne, and the literature on Alphonse Bertillon's system of police
photography. Other material under discussion includes the publications of
Paul Broca, Charles Darwin, A. A. E. Disderi, Francis Galton, Henry P.
Robinson, and the influential French photographer Albert Londe.
	The study assesses recent contributions to the historiography of
scientific representation and seeks to re-evaluate the significance of
photography in the period between 1850 and 1900. It is argued that the
epistemological status of photographs hinged on the emotive impact they had
on the observer. Ultimately, it was the latter's subjective reaction that
served to affirm the status of objectivity of the representations.
Simultaneously, the observer's subjectivity itself was articulated by the
practices involved in the use of portrait photographs. The dispositif
photographique thus served to constitute a visual economy of individuals
which contributed to the affirmation of social positions and a distinct
sense of self for the social agents.


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