Overview

In Photography and Archaeology, Frederick Bohrer examines some of history's most famous archaeological excavations, as well as lesser-known and previously unpublished finds, from the Mediterranean, Middle East, Asia, Europe and the Americas, and the ways these sites have been represented in photographs. Bohrer shows how the development of photography in the nineteenth century made archaeology available to a much wider audience, and he discusses how these images revealed the material traces of the past, as well as their meaning and use today.

Full Product Details

9781861898708

Table of Contents

Reviews

This brief but unique examination of the relationship between photography and archaeology addresses the many interesting facets of their long, intertwined history. --Choice This is a beautiful book containing many gorgeous photographs and it is a delight to handle. It covers a broad range of material and will widen the horizons of readers familiar with standard histories of photography. The reader will be encouraged to dig more deeply into the archaeological publications of the past to discover more photographic delights. --Cassone Art Review Photography's unreliability may seem like a well-worn subject. Yet the long history of archaeology's attempts to bend photography to its will allows this book--part of Reaktion's excellently-produced Exposures series--to unearth numerous photographic curiosities and provide some fresh insights into an issue on which you might have thought there was little new to say. --Source This book explores the close ties between the rise of scientific archaeology and the spread of the new medium of photography from the mid-nineteenth century through to the present day. While many of us are aware that early archaeology's popularity was facilitated largely by means of photographic images, Bohrer demonstrates that, in their quest for the objective documentation of the past, archaeologists and scholars of antiquity were also directly involved in the invention of the new photographic technologies. This beautifully illustrated book will be welcomed by archaeologists and photography historians alike. --Zainab Bahrani, Columbia University Photography and Archaeology is another worthy entry in Reaktion Books' series on photography and history, culture, and social sciences. . . . [It] surveys the history of photography in archaeology, raising pointed questions about the past and our capacity to 'see, ' 'know, ' and represent it. --Anthropology Review Database

"""Photography's unreliability may seem like a well-worn subject. Yet the long history of archaeology's attempts to bend photography to its will allows this book--part of Reaktion's excellently-produced Exposures series--to unearth numerous photographic curiosities and provide some fresh insights into an issue on which you might have thought there was little new to say.""-- ""Source"" ""This book explores the close ties between the rise of scientific archaeology and the spread of the new medium of photography from the mid-nineteenth century through to the present day. While many of us are aware that early archaeology's popularity was facilitated largely by means of photographic images, Bohrer demonstrates that, in their quest for the objective documentation of the past, archaeologists and scholars of antiquity were also directly involved in the invention of the new photographic technologies. This beautifully illustrated book will be welcomed by archaeologists and photography historians alike.""-- ""Zainab Bahrani, Columbia University"" ""This brief but unique examination of the relationship between photography and archaeology addresses the many interesting facets of their long, intertwined history.""-- ""Choice"" ""This is a beautiful book containing many gorgeous photographs and it is a delight to handle. It covers a broad range of material and will widen the horizons of readers familiar with standard histories of photography. The reader will be encouraged to dig more deeply into the archaeological publications of the past to discover more photographic delights.""-- ""Cassone Art Review"" ""Photography and Archaeology is another worthy entry in Reaktion Books' series on photography and history, culture, and social sciences. . . . [It] surveys the history of photography in archaeology, raising pointed questions about the past and our capacity to 'see, ' 'know, ' and represent it.""-- ""Anthropology Review Database"""

Photography's unreliability may seem like a well-worn subject. Yet the long history of archaeology's attempts to bend photography to its will allows this book--part of Reaktion's excellently-produced Exposures series--to unearth numerous photographic curiosities and provide some fresh insights into an issue on which you might have thought there was little new to say. -- Source This book explores the close ties between the rise of scientific archaeology and the spread of the new medium of photography from the mid-nineteenth century through to the present day. While many of us are aware that early archaeology's popularity was facilitated largely by means of photographic images, Bohrer demonstrates that, in their quest for the objective documentation of the past, archaeologists and scholars of antiquity were also directly involved in the invention of the new photographic technologies. This beautifully illustrated book will be welcomed by archaeologists and photography historians alike. -- Zainab Bahrani, Columbia University This brief but unique examination of the relationship between photography and archaeology addresses the many interesting facets of their long, intertwined history. -- Choice This is a beautiful book containing many gorgeous photographs and it is a delight to handle. It covers a broad range of material and will widen the horizons of readers familiar with standard histories of photography. The reader will be encouraged to dig more deeply into the archaeological publications of the past to discover more photographic delights. -- Cassone Art Review Photography and Archaeology is another worthy entry in Reaktion Books' series on photography and history, culture, and social sciences. . . . [It] surveys the history of photography in archaeology, raising pointed questions about the past and our capacity to 'see, ' 'know, ' and represent it. -- Anthropology Review Database

""Photography's unreliability may seem like a well-worn subject. Yet the long history of archaeology's attempts to bend photography to its will allows this book--part of Reaktion's excellently-produced Exposures series--to unearth numerous photographic curiosities and provide some fresh insights into an issue on which you might have thought there was little new to say.""-- ""Source"" ""This book explores the close ties between the rise of scientific archaeology and the spread of the new medium of photography from the mid-nineteenth century through to the present day. While many of us are aware that early archaeology's popularity was facilitated largely by means of photographic images, Bohrer demonstrates that, in their quest for the objective documentation of the past, archaeologists and scholars of antiquity were also directly involved in the invention of the new photographic technologies. This beautifully illustrated book will be welcomed by archaeologists and photography historians alike.""-- ""Zainab Bahrani, Columbia University"" ""This brief but unique examination of the relationship between photography and archaeology addresses the many interesting facets of their long, intertwined history.""-- ""Choice"" ""This is a beautiful book containing many gorgeous photographs and it is a delight to handle. It covers a broad range of material and will widen the horizons of readers familiar with standard histories of photography. The reader will be encouraged to dig more deeply into the archaeological publications of the past to discover more photographic delights.""-- ""Cassone Art Review"" ""Photography and Archaeology is another worthy entry in Reaktion Books' series on photography and history, culture, and social sciences. . . . [It] surveys the history of photography in archaeology, raising pointed questions about the past and our capacity to 'see, ' 'know, ' and represent it.""-- ""Anthropology Review Database""

Author Information

Frederick N. Bohrer is Professor of Art at Hood College, Frederick, Maryland, and author of Orientalism and Visual Culture: Mesopotamia in Nineteenth-century Europe (2003).

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