Capturing Nature: Early Scientific Photography at the Australian Museum 1857-1893 by Vanessa Finney

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condition. Wear to book corners and edges, particularly front cover tail right corner now protected with book tape. Interior and binding are still excellent.

In the mid-nineteenth century, some of the earliest adopters of the revolutionary new art form of photography were scientists. Museums around the world were quick to see the huge potential for capturing fleeting moments of life, death and discovery.

At the Australian Museum, curator Gerard Krefft and taxidermist Henry Barnes began to experiment with photography in the 1860s, preparing and staging their specimens - from whales and giant sunfish to lifelike lyre bird scenes and fossils - and capturing them in thousands of beautiful and arresting images.

Capturing Nature reveals this fascinating visual archive for the first time, profiling the remarkable partnership of Krefft and Barnes, their innovative work and the Australian Museum's urgent quest to become more scientific in its practices. (back cover)