| "The stunning archive of images that Bogdan
and his co-authors have amassed is a major
contribution to the growing body of analysis
of disability representation in photography.
This book brings incisive, expert historical
perspective to more familiar terrain and at
the same time opens up important new avenues
of exploration."—Susan Schweik, University of California at Berkeley "This book makes a substantial contribution to the history of the visual representation of disability in the United States. It should become an important resource to those who seek to understand the varieties of contexts and purposes in which people with disabilities were portrayed by others, and—equally important—portrayed themselves."—Philip Ferguson, Chapman University |
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Robert Bogdan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Social Science and
Education at Syracuse University. He is the author of several books including
Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit and
Beauty and the Beast: Human-Animal Relations as Revealed in Real Photo
Postcards, 1905–1935.
Photo: Charles Tripp, " The Armless Wonder," 1885. Photograph by Eisenmann. Cabinet card, Bogdan Collection. |
Midget, feeble-minded, crippled, lame, and insane: these terms and
the historical photographs that accompany them may seem shocking
to present-day audiences. A young woman with no arms wears
a sequined tutu and smiles for the camera as she smokes a cigarette
with her toes; a man holds up two prosthetic legs while his own legs
are bared to the knees to show his missing feet. The photos were used
as promotional material for circus sideshows, charity drives, and art
galleries. They were found on begging cards and in family albums.
In Picturing Disability, Bogdan and his collaborators gather over 200
historical photographs showing how people with disabilities have been
presented and exploring the contexts in which they were photographed.
Rather than focus on the subjects, Bogdan turns his gaze on the people behind the camera. He examines the historic and cultural environment of the photographs to decipher the relationship between the images and the perspectives of the picture makers. In analyzing the visual rhetoric of these photographs, Bogdan identifies the wide variety of genres, from sideshow souvenirs to clinical photographs. Ranging from the 1860s, when photographs first became readily available, to the 1970s, when the disability rights movement became a force for significant change, Bogdan chronicles the evolution of disability image creation. Picturing Disability takes the reader beyond judging images as positive or slanderous to reveal how particular contexts generate specific emotions and lasting depictions.
Rather than focus on the subjects, Bogdan turns his gaze on the people behind the camera. He examines the historic and cultural environment of the photographs to decipher the relationship between the images and the perspectives of the picture makers. In analyzing the visual rhetoric of these photographs, Bogdan identifies the wide variety of genres, from sideshow souvenirs to clinical photographs. Ranging from the 1860s, when photographs first became readily available, to the 1970s, when the disability rights movement became a force for significant change, Bogdan chronicles the evolution of disability image creation. Picturing Disability takes the reader beyond judging images as positive or slanderous to reveal how particular contexts generate specific emotions and lasting depictions.
