This essay will discuss the celebration of the principle of automatic photography in 20th-century art, and particularly the use of a special device known as the photo booth. To do this it is useful to briefly allude to two dimensions of 19th-century photographic portrait that can be seen in the uses that contemporary artists have made of photo IDs and the actual photo booth. On the one hand, in fact, photo ID portraits and certain uses of the photo booth contain methods and suggestions of 19th-century applications of photography by state, police,medical, scientific and anthropological bureaucratic agencies. On the other hand, the photo booth opens scenarios for escape and fantasy that intertwine with that of another exceptional photographic advent in the form of the 19th-century carte-de-visite. The first of these is attributable to the fact that, since its original and natural close association to the uses of science, photography was immediately exploited for its recognized ability to mirror reality, documenting human identity, studying ethnic diversity, identifying and classifying psychiatric disorders, eventually facilitating coercion, and the prevention of danger and civil insecurity. To do so, photographic portraits have been used since the second half of the 19th century for psychiatric, criminology and anthropology applications.

The Photo Booth and the Automatic Photographic Portrait from Criminal and Pschychiatric Certification to Imaginary Escape

MUZZARELLI, FEDERICA
2016

Abstract

This essay will discuss the celebration of the principle of automatic photography in 20th-century art, and particularly the use of a special device known as the photo booth. To do this it is useful to briefly allude to two dimensions of 19th-century photographic portrait that can be seen in the uses that contemporary artists have made of photo IDs and the actual photo booth. On the one hand, in fact, photo ID portraits and certain uses of the photo booth contain methods and suggestions of 19th-century applications of photography by state, police,medical, scientific and anthropological bureaucratic agencies. On the other hand, the photo booth opens scenarios for escape and fantasy that intertwine with that of another exceptional photographic advent in the form of the 19th-century carte-de-visite. The first of these is attributable to the fact that, since its original and natural close association to the uses of science, photography was immediately exploited for its recognized ability to mirror reality, documenting human identity, studying ethnic diversity, identifying and classifying psychiatric disorders, eventually facilitating coercion, and the prevention of danger and civil insecurity. To do so, photographic portraits have been used since the second half of the 19th century for psychiatric, criminology and anthropology applications.
2016
Notebook 2016
47
100
F.Muzzarelli
File in questo prodotto:
Eventuali allegati, non sono esposti

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/575195
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact