Pathological bodies: photography and medicine in the nineteenth century

Abstract

This article examines different approaches to nineteenth-century medical photography. It argues that we should go beyond the visual analysis to examine the material conditions in which photographs were taken and reproduced. It does so taking as a case study two illustrated journals: Iconographie photographique de la Salpêtrière (1875-1880) and Nouvelle iconographie de la Salpêtrière (1888-1918). An exhaustive analysis demonstrates that the different photographic practices materialised in each publication constructed visually and medically the hysterical body in a different way.