Picturing Empire
Photography and the Visualization of the British Empire
by James R. Ryan
272 pages· 1997· ISBN 9780226732336
About
Using detailed case studies of specific persons, places, and practices linked to broader themes and ideological frameworks, Ryan shows how Imperial Britain produced and projected its imaginative geography through photography. He begins by considering the role of photography in the exploration of "darkest Africa" by David Livingstone's Zambezi Expedition of 1858-63. Finding that other travelers used photographs as a powerful means of organizing and domesticating foreign landscapes, Ryan explores this theme through the topographical and landscape photography of Samuel Bourne in India and John Thompson in Cyprus.
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