Photography, Anthropology and History: Expanding the Frame

The 11 papers of this volume offer a variety of specific case studies and analysis of the cultural and visual constructs that underlie historic photographs taken for the purposes of anthropology, especially ethnography. Some of the studies concern visual theory and influence, while most detail the specific practices and goals of certain 19th- and early 20th-century anthropologists in posing and taking photographs, with frequent quotes from their journals and other original texts. Among the topics are Franz Boas's Hamat'sa life group diorama, created for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and the versions later shown elsewhere; analysis of the Kamanga initiation photography in the southern Sudan by E.E. Evans-Pritchard; and the scientist as subject in the photographs taken by Torii Ryuzo in Taiwan. The volume is heavily illustrated with b&w plates. The papers were presented in earlier form at a workshop called Revisiting the History of Visual Anthropology, held at the 9th Royal Anthropological Institute's International Festival of Ethnographic Film, in Oxford, the UK, in September 2005. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Christopher Morton is Head of Photograph and Manuscript Collections, Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford and an Adjunct Fellow of Linacre College, Oxford Elizabeth Edwards is Professor and Senior Research Fellow in Cultural History of Photography, University of the Arts London (LCC), UK