The Emergence of Medical Photography in Nineteenth Century France
The uses of photography in medical contexts between 1860 and 1914 in France were varied and adopted different forms in different hospitals and medical specialisms. Taking the multiplicity of medical photographic practices as a starting point, this talk will reexamine the early history of medical photography by problematising the very concept of “medical photography”. In particular, in this talk I will focus on two (interrelated) case studies: the differences in funding between institutions, and the differences in the creation of photographic protocols.
Dr Beatriz Pichel (she/her) is Associate Professor in Photographic History at PHRC, De Montfort University. She works at the intersection of photographic history, the history of medicine, medical humanities and the history of emotions. She is the author of Picturing the Western Front (MUP, 2021) and co-editor of the collective volume Emotional Bodies. The Historical Performativity of Emotions (University of Illinois Press, 2019). She is currently the Principal Investigator of the research network “The Ethics of Medical Photography: Past, Present and Future”, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Her current project examines how doctors, photographers, patients and other stakeholders used photography in medical settings, putting ethical questions at the centre of the historical analysis.
All welcome- this event is free, but booking is required.
This page was last updated on 3 June 2025
