Picturing Disability ─ Beggar, Freak, Citizen, and Other Photographic Rhetoric

This coffee table book blends text and over 200 b&w photographs to present historical images and contexts for the disabled. After an introduction, the book is divided into sections examining portraits as sideshow souvenirs, begging cards, images in conjunction with charity, postcards and public relations imagery from asylums, clinical photographs, advertising photographs, movie stills, art photography, and citizen portraits. Written work such as memoirs, diaries, and notations were consulted in the exploration of historical and cultural circumstances not only of the subjects but of the photographers and viewers. A section of references and an index are included. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Bogdan resides in Orwell, VT. Previous Books: Real Photo Postcard Guide: the People’s Photography and Beauty and the Beast: Human-Animal Relations as Revealed in Real Photo Postcards, 1905-1935