Photography as Instrument and Profession: Art versus Science

Abstract

This chapter elaborates on the photographic community’s anxieties about the instrumental value of its medium and how discussions centered on the distinction between artistic and scientific standards of visual representation. It examines some of the use found for photography in artistic circles as a standard of realism and a modeling tool. Yet the distinction between artistic and scientific images did not prevent the collaboration of scientists with photographers of artistic inclination. Meanwhile, as photography was increasingly of service to science through the 1850s, photography was seeking to become more legitimate and relevant by becoming more technical and scientific in formulation, understanding and method. One institutional medium that certified the new status and value was the British Association for the Advancement of Science, where it received much attention and recognition as an instrument of research and communication.