Overview

Contemporary audiences are often shocked to learn that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, medical students around the world posed for photographic portraits with their cadavers; a genre known as dissection photography. Featuring previously unseen images, stories and anecdotes, this book explores the visual culture of death within the gross anatomy lab through the tradition of dissection photography, examining its historical aspects from both photographic and medical perspectives. The author pays particular attention to the use of dissection photographs as an expression of student identity, and as an evolving transgressive ritual intricately connected to, and eventually superseding, the act of dissection itself.

Full Product Details

9781529222180

Table of Contents

Reviews

“Vividly detailed, incisively analytical, and thoroughly engaging, this is a welcome contribution to our understanding of dissection room portraiture, an iconic genre of medical photography and a revealing wedge into turn-of-the-century medical culture.” John Harley Warner, Yale University

Author Information

Brandon Zimmerman has worked as an exhibit developer, designer, curator, and consultant for numerous museums, libraries, and archives throughout the United States for almost 20 years. He holds an MA in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management from the University of Rochester.

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