As shown in his image, “Study of muscles in the face, Fright,” from 1852-1856, his patient is being electrocuted by metal rods in order to contract his muscles and capture his facial expression. Boulogne aimed to map out a guide for the physical traits of human emotion. Two scientists during the nineteenth century that used photographic evidence in their research for internal human characteristics were Duchenne de Boulogne and Dr. These scientific methods of documentation led to harmful and cruel research performed on asylum patients. Along with the adoption of these uses came the belief that photographic images were fully truthful and were proclaimed as “evidence” of the world around them. During this time, photography became useful to scientists as they were able to utilize this new found technology for documenting visual data and identification purposes. Scientists used these ideologies to determine behaviors in humans, such that having certain facial features or concavity of the skull would result in various ranges of morality, physical abilities, and mental capabilities. Phrenology focused on the shape and physical features of the skull, while physiognomy studied facial characteristics. These statistical approaches both aimed to find correlations between physical attributes and character or personality traits. These notions that created the concept of “The Other” stemmed from the two influential sciences during the nineteenth century, phrenology and physiognomy. A headdress is not typically worn by Native Americans all the time, and images like these create harmful stereotypes to discriminated groups. Many examples of this exist, but an undeniable case would be J.E Whitney Studio’s 1862 Carte-de-visite, “Cut Nose.” In this photograph, a Native American is pictured wearing a headdress and below the description reads, “Cut Nose, Who in the Massacre of 1862, in Minnesota, murdered 18 Women and Children and 5 Men.” The man pictured in this image may have no relation to the event that happened and by creating a composite there are many parts of the image that are staged. The Other is displayed in a scientific or analytical manner in order to separate their association with the typical group viewing the photograph. In photographer Allan Sekula’s paper, "The Body and the Archive," he argues that “photography came to establish and delimit the terrain of the other, to define both the generalized look-the typology-and the contingent instance of deviance and social pathology.” 1 This concept of “The Other” refers to an individual that is perceived by the viewer as different in some underlying way. During this time in the nineteenth century, society had just started to contemplate the meaning of race and these beliefs affect how we interpret history, as they crafted a racist lens that influenced the society that we see in modern day. This perspective that stemmed from Positivism led to scientific uses of photography that created harmful misconceptions of mental illness and instability, along with a racist lense of marginalized groups.
With the invention of photography, came a trust in the truth of the photographic image. 1 media/twelvebostonphysicians.gif T23:06:42+00:00 The Influence of Scientific Research on Photography in the Victorian Era 17 By Sam Webster plain T19:46:18+00:00.
"Composite Portraits, Made by Combining Those of Many Different Persons Into a Single Resultant Figure." The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 8 (1879): 140. AH 331 History of Photography Spring 2021 Compendium Main Menu Introduction Assignment 1 Assignment 2 Assignment 3 Visualizing Photo History One Image Two Minutes Presentations Author Biographies Francis Galton. Please enable Javascript and reload the page. This site requires Javascript to be turned on.
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