Darwin's Camera
Art and Photography in the Theory of Evolution
Phillip Prodger
ISBN: 9780195150315

Oxford University Press
Hardcover, October 2009
320 pages | 106 b/w illus.,7 color illus. | 7 x 10
List Price:$39.95

Darwin's Camera tells the extraordinary story of how Charles Darwin changed the way pictures are seen and made. In his illustrated masterpiece, Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1871), Darwin introduced the idea of using photographs to illustrate a scientific theory. Creating the first photographically illustrated science book ever published, Darwin managed to produce dramatic images at a time when photography was famously slow and awkward.

During his investigation into the nature of emotions, Darwin commissioned photographs of children and adults in order to study specific facial expressions. Because of the dramatic delay between his subjects’ expressions and the photograph’s capture of them, Darwin used photographs made with electric currents to manipulate facial muscles into the desired expression. Using these and other staged photos, Darwin developed one of his most radical theories: emotions evolved biologically. With this, he altered the field of psychology, including the thinking of his later admirer, Sigmund Freud.

Darwin also influenced the course of photography. He mingled with artists on the voyage of HMS Beagle, collaborated with famed photographer Oscar Rejlander to make his pictures, and corresponded with many painters and photographers, such as Joseph Wolf and Lewis Carroll. Darwin's Camera provides the first examination ever of these relationships and their effect on Darwin's work, and how Darwin, in turn, shaped the history of art.

About the Author:

Phillip Prodger is Curator of Photography at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, and the author of E.O. Hoppé's Amerika: Modernist Photographs from the 1920s; Time Stands Still: Muybridge and the Instantaneous Photography Movement (OUP 2003); and co-editor of Impressionist Camera: Pictorial Photography in Europe, 1888-1918. His writings on art and photography have been published in eight languages.

Reviews:

"Phillip Prodger brings his deep knowledge of the history of photography to reveal Darwin's innovative use of the medium as both evidence and illustration for his ground-breaking theories. This is a scholarly and entertaining account of how Darwin played a surprising role in shaping the visual culture of his time." —Martin Barnes, Senior Curator of Photographs, Victoria and Albert Museum

"A revealing new book."—Ewen Callaway, New Scientist

About the Peabody Essex Museum

The Peabody Essex Museum presents art and culture from New England and around the world. The museum's collections are among the finest of their kind, showcasing an unrivaled spectrum of American art and architecture (including four National Historic Landmark buildings) and outstanding Asian, Asian Export, Native American, African, Oceanic, Maritime and Photography collections. In addition to its vast collections, the museum offers a vibrant schedule of changing exhibitions and a hands-on education center. The museum campus features numerous parks, period gardens and 24 historic properties, including Yin Yu Tang, a 200-year-old house that is the only example of Chinese domestic architecture on display in the United States.

HOURS: Open Tuesday-Sunday and holiday Mondays, 10 am-5 pm. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

ADMISSION: Adults $15; seniors $13; students $11. Additional admission to Yin Yu Tang: $5. Members, youth 16 and under and residents of Salem enjoy free general admission and free admission to Yin Yu Tang.

INFO: Call 866-745-1876 or visit our Web site at www.pem.org.