Scenes in a Library: Reading the Photograph in the Book, 1843-1875 (October Books) - Hardcover

Armstrong, Carol

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262011697 ISBN 13: 9780262011693

Publisher: MIT Press, 1999

Synopsis

Today we are so accustomed to seeing photographs wedded to text—whether in the family album or daily newspaper—that the verbal framing of the photograph has become invisible. The text is internalized within the image, and the meaning of the photograph becomes clear and self-evident, as if by the evidence of the photograph itself. In Scenes in a Library, Carol Armstrong explores the experimental moment, at the inception of the new medium, when the word came to haunt the photographic image, and the forty or so years—roughly from the 1840s to the 1880s—during which the photographic image alternately resisted and became assimilated to the printed page.

Armstrong's emphasis is on British books. Not only was it in an English book that the paper photograph was first described and published, but the range of subject matter of nineteenth-century British photographically illustrated books prior to the 1880s was as rich as it was peculiar and sometimes recalcitrant. Armstrong focuses on one book about photography (Talbot's The Pencil of Nature); one "scientific" book (Anna Atkins's Photographs of British Algae); two travel narratives, one factual and one fictional (Francis Frith's Egypt and Palestine Photographed and Observed and his illustrated edition of Longfellow's novel Hyperion: A Romance); and one book of poetry (Julia Margaret Cameron's Illustrations to Alfred Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King); as well as some miscellaneous books from the 1870s. According to Armstrong, art history has tended to remove the historic photograph from its printed and published context. Moving back and forth between close looking and equally close reading, she reinserts the photograph into the book from which it was taken.

About this title

From the Publisher

An historical look at the photograph and the printed page
Today we are so accustomed to seeing photographs wedded to text- whether in the family album or daily newspaper- that the verbal framing of the photograph has become invisible. The text is internalized within the image, and the meaning of the photgraph becomes clear and self-evident, as if by the evidence of the photograph itself. In SCENES IN A LIBRARY, Carol Armstrong explores the experimental moment, at the inception of the new medium, when the word came to haunt the photographic image, and the forty or so years- roughly from the 1840s to the 1880s-during which the photographic image alternately resisted and became assimilated by the printed page.

It was in an English book that the paper photograph was first described and published. Indeed, the range of subject matter of nineteenth-century British photographically illustrated books prior to the 1880s was as rich as it was peculiar and sometimes recalcitrant. Armstrong focuses on one book about photography (Talbot's THE PENCIL OF NATURE); one "scientific" book (Anna Atkin's PHOTOGRAPHS OF BRITISH ALGAE); two travel narratives, one factual and one fictional (Francis Frith's EGYPT AND PALESTINE PHOTOGRAPHED AND OBSERVED and his illustrated edition of Longfellow's novel HYPERION: A ROMANCE); and one book of poetry (Julia Margaret Cameron's ILLUSTRATIONS TO ALFRED LORD TENNYSON'S IDYLLS OF THE KING); as well as some miscellaneous books from the 1870s. According to Armstrong, art history has tended to remove the historic photograph from its printed and published context. Moving back and forth between close looking and equally close reading, she reinserts the photograph into the book from which it was taken.

"Carol Armstrong's lucid and elegantly written SCENES IN A LIBRARY: READING THE PHOTOGRAPH IN THE BOOK, 1843-1875 is s truly remarkable book. It is unlike any other book on nineteenth-century photography I have ever encountered. Taking as her object of inquiry a range of photographically illustrated books...Armstrong produces a series of readings that are at one and the same time a brilliant dissecting of nineteenth-century positivism, a nuanced and complex reading of Victorian British photographic culture (and its gendered spheres) and by no means least, a profound analysis and meditation on the genre itself. This book makes an important and original contribution not only to photographic history, but to Victorian studies, visual culture, and cultural studies."-Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara

Carol Armstrong is Associate Professor at the Graduate School and University Center, the City University of New York.

Synopsis

At the end of the 20th century we are accustomed to seeing photographs wedded to text - whether in the family album of daily newspaper - where the verbal framing of the photograph has become invisible. This text is internalized within the image, and the meaning of the photograph itself. It explores the experimental moment, at the inception of the new medium, when the word came to haunt photographic image, and the forty or so years during which the photographic image alternately resisted and became assimilited to the printed page. The author's emphasis is on British books. Not only was it in an English book that the paper photograph was first described and published, but the range of subject matter of 19th-century British photographically illustrated books prior to the 1880s was as rich as it was peculiar and sometimes recalcitrant.

Carol Armstrong focuses on one book about photography (Talbot's "The Pencil of Nature"); one "scientific" book (Anna Atkins' "Photographs of British Algae"); two travel narrative, one factual and one fictional (Francis Firth's "Egypt and Palestine Photographed and Observed", and his illustrated edition of Longfellow's novel "Hyperion: A Romance"); and one book of poetry (Julia Margaret Cameron's "Illustrations to Alfred Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King); as well as some miscellaneous books from the 1870s. According to Armstrong, art history has tended to remove the historic photograph from its printed and published context. Moving back and forth between close looking and equally close reading, she aims to reinsert the photograph into the book from which it was taken.

Edition details

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262011697
• ISBN 13: 9780262011693
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 534