Photography and the Representation of Evil
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13135/2281-6658/3102Keywords:
Hysteria, Medical Photography, Jean-Martin Charcot, Salpêtriere, Photographic GazeAbstract
The French neurologist, Jean-Martin Charcot, linked his name to studies on hysteria. The documentation of his work at the Salpêtrière Hospital, in Paris, shows how any sign of emotional excess was recorded and classified through the photographic medium. These images provided the materials for the multivolume album Iconographie photographique de la Salpêtrière (1878). In the photos of Salpêtriere’s patients, the image takes over the disease. The photographic medium was not a neutral witness, but influenced the performance of hysteria. In years when photography seems able to unveil human character and to separate good from bad (as shown by the research by Bertillon and Lombroso), the photographic gaze is soon screwed on itself, seduced by the density of the images.Downloads
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors keep the copyrights for their work and give the journal the work’s first publication copyright, which is at the same time licensed under a Creative Commons License – Attribution, which in turn allows other parties to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Content Licence
You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work, and to adapt the work. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
Metadata licence
CoSMo published articles metadata are dedicated to the public domain by waiving all publisher's rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.
You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.
