Contesting Images: Photography and the World's Columbian Exposition

by Julie K. Brown

The prevalence of photography at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 demonstrated that it was a technology in transition. Photographs were used in innovative ways and on a scale never attempted at previous exhibitions. The special British Loan Collection featured preeminent photographers of the new pictorial art movement, while the most recent French developments in color photography and in criminal photography were on display. Key photographic manufacturers in the United States, including the Eastman Company, staged elaborate exhibits, and photographers such as James Landy, Julius Caesar Strauss, and Emma Farnsworth showed their work. Contesting Images reveals that there were also competing uses of photography at the fair. The Exposition was a stage for the internal politics of both the official organizers and the photographers and manufacturers as they competed for their respective spaces. In addition, the Exposition regulated photography for commercial consumption by licensing concessions and restricting the equipment used by professional and amateur photographers.The role that photography played at the World's Columbian Exposition opens up a new window on the dynamics that drove this event, providing an insider's view of how the fair worked for both exhibitors and spectators.

Genres: History, Photography

185 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 1994

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the better books about the fair, in the sense that the author is a professionally trained scholar (maybe not a historian, but not far off) crafting an analysis and paying attention to the broader historical context in which the fair took place. Brown is clearly well versed in the intricacies of photography, too, and those who know little about the technical aspects of the field (like me!) may be a bit out of our depth in some places.

I'm assigning it in my graduate research seminar on the fair.