Clarity or accuracy – what makes a good scientific image?
8 days ago
- #science communication
- #visual arts
- #photography
- Felice Frankel reviews 'Flashes of Brilliance' by Anika Burgess, a book celebrating the power of photographic images in art, science, and history.
- The book highlights photography's dual role in science as both a discovery tool and a communication medium.
- Early photography examples, like Jacob Riis's images of NYC tenements, reveal social issues more powerfully than text.
- Photography can manipulate reality, as seen in Édouard Buguet's fake 'spirit' photos in the 1870s.
- Eadweard Muybridge's horse motion studies were groundbreaking but also involved selective image manipulation.
- The book discusses how images shape our perception of reality, comparing early photography to Susan Sontag's ideas in 'On Photography'.
- Aerial and underwater photographs by Cecil Shadbolt and Louis Boutan influence our understanding of the world.