In this volume, leading scholars of photography and media examine photography's vital role in the evolution of media and communication in the nineteenth century.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the introduction of telegraphy, the development of a cheaper and more reliable postal service, the rise of the mass-circulation press, and the emergence of the railway dramatically changed the way people communicated and experienced time and space. Concurrently, photography developed as a medium that changed how images were produced and circulated. Yet, for the most part, photography of the era is studied outside the field of media history. The contributors to this volume challenge those established disciplinary boundaries as they programmatically explore the intersections of photography and "new media" during a period of fast-paced change. Their essays look at the emergence and early history of photography in the context of broader changes in the history of communications; the role of the nascent photographic press in photography's infancy; and the development of photographic techniques as part of a broader media culture that included the mass-consumed novel, sound recording, and cinema.

Featuring essays by noteworthy historians in photography and media history, this discipline-shifting examination of the communication revolution of the nineteenth century is an essential addition to the field of media studies.

In addition to the editors, contributors to this volume are Geoffrey Batchen, Geoffrey Belknap, Lynn Berger, Jan von Brevern, Anthony Enns, Andre Gaudreault, Lisa Gitelman, David Henkin, Erkki Huhtamo, Philippe Marion, Peppino Ortoleva, Steffen Siegel, Richard Taws, and Kim Timby.

About the Author

Nicoletta Leonardi is Professor of Art History at Albertina Academy of Fine Arts, Turin, and the author of Il paesaggio americano dell'Ottocento: Pittori, fotografi e pubblico.

Simone Natale is Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies at Loughborough University and the author of Supernatural Entertainments: Victorian Spiritualism and the Rise of Modern Media Culture, also published by Penn State University Press.

Reviews

"A significant intervention into the longstanding constitution of the history of photography as a media-specific discipline."

-Emily Doucet Oxford Art Journal

"Photography and Other Media in the Nineteenth Century is a highly welcome addition to current debates on material culture and photography, while its single greatest achievement lies in successfully opening up this often academically marginalised medium to new interdisciplinary sociocultural, historical, economic, political, and media perspectives."

-Kathrin Yacavone History of Photography

"This groundbreaking volume embodies a major shift in the historiography of photography. These first-rate contributions bring to bear the intellectual resources of the numerous disciplines that must inform the holistic study of photography in the future. Taken together, a new approach emerges, one in which photography's status as a medium is not taken for granted and in which its boundaries are defined dynamically by its interactions with other forms of representation and communication in the nineteenth century."

-Jordan Bear,author of Disillusioned: Victorian Photography and the Discerning Subject

"This timely and refreshing book challenges the introspective 'media exceptionalism' that often accompanies photographic studies. Instead it places photography firmly within the broad field of cultures of communicative technology, from the telegraph to postal systems, enriching the understanding of all these entangled practices."

-Elizabeth Edwards,author of The Camera as Historian: Amateur Photographers and Historical Imagination, 1885-1918

"Provides fresh insights for the expanding potential of archival visual collections."

-Clayton Lewis The American Archivist

"The approaches to intermediality explored in this volume resonate well beyond the history of photography, and beyond media history too. Positioned as a starting point with a call for further enquiries, this collection taps into the spirit of materials-focused, context-aware analysis in current scholarship and embraces a shift away from an emphasis on production contexts towards dissemination and reception. The potentially wide-ranging applications of this inclusive approach should have the desired impact of encouraging scholars in far-reaching disciplines to also engage with photography outside of art history in non-Western, non-visual, or contemporary digital contexts."

-Beth Knazook Romance, Revolution & Reform

Book Information
ISBN 9780271079165
Author Nicoletta Leonardi
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Pennsylvania State University Press
Publisher Pennsylvania State University Press
Weight(grams) 522g
Dimensions(mm) 254mm * 178mm * 254mm