Photographies

Over the course of fifty years, from 1850 to 1900, photography was transformed from a specialized and artisanal pursuit to a mass-produced commodity. The following examples will prompt you to think about how the changing photographic technologies and formats of the nineteenth century shaped memory and identity. How did emerging forms of image-making and new kinds of photographic prints influence the ways that people remembered people and places? What opportunities for forging and communicating identity did these technologies and formats enable?