Photography and Anthropology Christopher Pinneyy twentieth century, ‘nat now follows traces opology one The Doubled History of Photography and Anthropology ‘The coincidence ofthe establishment ofthe Aborigines’ Protection Society in 1837 andthe founding of the Ethnologieal Society of London in 1843 with Frangois Arago’s announcement in 839 of Daguerre's photographic process, and Fox Talbot’s declaration of his ‘photogenic drawing in the same year, draws our attention to the curious echo between the history of photography and that of anthropology. Like photography, anthropology also has a ‘long history’ that would extend its significant moments further back than 1839 or 1837. Inthe case of photography, as Geoffrey Batchen has shown. there were numerous attempis inthe early decades ofthe nineteenth century by enthusiasts “burning with desice’ to produce photographs Its clear with hindsight thatin 1827 Joseph Nicéphore Niépee did infact produce an image in Varennes using bitumen of Judea that has all the formal characeristies of what would later be understood asa photograph. In a similar manner, anthropology has a prehistory littered with names like Peter Camper and Johana Friedrich Blumenbach, comparative anatomists who were struggling empirically and conceptually with the diversity of humankind. Edward Burnett Tylor was probably the first individual who consistently called himself and thought of himself as an ‘anthropologist’: in the mid-nineteenth century numerous figures who have been subsequently claimed forthe proto-history of anthropology ‘would not ... have defined, themselves as “anthropologists” >retin fens at st of ROSE oer i yp Theesab cs Pec Soy 8) 0 Le a wh afican Coloiaation Soi © webct en El anes Fn and ose Pe sey by scan Fg Nar Area. asad se in cas pase respi ease Bs orn sn cent TEN Budo Ba) aah ge) Ha The asst Shout ores abe 5 spot aborga peopkes— SA ey eal ior SE a or itl ils in, Ral aS EEE ses the ei wa nei he ee aan clon bis. So one des an oP hoa * a nde rank eas on bal ri borin! ei ca paca Feces exe 1 eA tp socked tke v7 cee iene Pr amuic—dneson rane wad ed tea sae proces ET hat feat ADU Fae pcan A See wold aguereayge 1 heen Acad TA aes of osu mun 20d NORE A a th. 8 se 7 inthe sare yes and Sener ping insect oe te epics SE ma wosld oat th pb of PEPE cs anaes ean mathe ae ‘omega enn Bah es im cea pi a pore Peed cee SAPD nT ef pn compiit by). barat Athol Aeon Poi et Dp f phocographs from the us enon : San Seer nains an 1868 albumen copy oar iat neg yo Thomas. Easy big Aaguereonpe ofthe bem he Kh wt Teg Shoah ound te yt site ey ogame el avai. 208 Dan ey ig dng fo 60.0 Thea ag ape mein t,t ab Kes dont