Synopses & Reviews
Since its inception, photography has been both a tool and a subject of research. As developments in photochemistry and camera construction made it an increasingly popular mass medium, it also served as an important means of scientific documentation, education, and communication.
Science in Sight documents both kinds of scientific photography with pictures from the vast image archive at the ETH-Bibliothek, the main library at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zürich.
Monika Burri has selected a rich array of images, including astronomical and microphotography, laboratory situations, carefully illuminated experimental installations, and more. In her introductory essay, she investigates the intersection of photography and science as well as the changing role of ETH Zürichs Photographic Institute. (The institute, whose little-examined archive supplies many of this volumes previously unpublished images, served ETH Zürich as an independent service and research unit from 1886 until 1979.)
The third volume in Verlag Scheidegger and Spiesss Pictorial Worlds series, Science in Sight will appeal to anyone interested in the history of photography.
Synopsis
ETH-Bibliothek, the main library at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurichs (ETH Zurich), is holding in its Image Archive vast collections of photographs. Among them is the complete, and so far only little examined, collection of ETH Zurichs own Photographic Institute throughout its existence as an independent service and research unit between 1886 and 1979. The new, third volume in the series
Pictorial Worlds. Photographs from the Image Archive, ETH-Bibliothek documents both main aspects of scientific photography: servicing research in many disciplines and being subject of basic research itself. A rich selection of images is presented, ranging from astronomical and micro photography to laboratory situations and carefully illuminated experimental installations. The introductory essay investigates the interplay between photography and the world of science and tells the story and changing role over the decades of ETH Zurichs Photographic Institute.
Synopsis
The photo agency Comet Photo AG was founded in Zurich [please use German andldquo;Umlautandrdquo; here] in 1952 by Swiss photographers Hans Gerber, Bjorn Eric Lindroos, and Jack Metzger with the aim of supplying media and businesses with images of Zurich. Quickly, however, the agency expanded its reach to all of Switzerland.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; This book presents some two hundred images from the heyday of Comet Photo in the 1960s and andrsquo;70s. Emphasizing the rapid changes Switzerland underwent in those years, the photographs in the book cover cities and countryside, industry and agriculture, celebrities and fashion, and major public events. Together, they offer an unforgettable, stylish portrait of Switzerland in a period of dynamic change and growth.
About the Author
Georg Kreis has been a professor of modern and Swiss history at University of Basel 1986 to 2008.
Table of Contents
Editors Foreword
Introduction
Science in Sight
Images
Scientific Photographs from the Image Archive, ETH-Bibliothek