The process of visualization which occurs at different stages of scientific exploration and verification has included photographic imaging in a variety of ways throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. These range from the precise, uniform detailing of objects through the daguerreotype process to the revelation of hidden structures through Rontgen's X-ray imagery. Images of natural history, experiments in physics, geological surveys and archeological digs, as well as astronomical, botanical and anatomical photographs, combine to produce a narrative of human curiosity, inventiveness and sometimes, misguidedness.
Because many of the photographers, like William Henry Fox Talbot, Anna Atkins, Andreas Ritter von Ettingshausen, Leon Foucault and their many successors, were often attracted both the facts and the beauty of the objects they were observing and recording, interesting tensions surround the creation and perception of the works.
Opening in Ottawa in the fall of 1997, the curator of the exhibition, Ann Thomas, is working in concert with Marta Braun, Professor of Film and Photography, Ryerson Polytechnical University, Dr. Larry Schaaf, Independent Curator, Dr. Martin Kemp, Chair, Art History, Oxford University, John McElhone, Conservator of Photographs, National Gallery and Dr. Mimi Cazort, Curator of Prints and Drawings, national Gallery of Canada, contributors to the handsome, richly illustrated publication.
The exhibition will consist of 160 images by over 30 photographers. It will be exhibited at two venues: the National Gallery of Canada (October 17, 1997 - January 4, 1998) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (dates to be announced later).