Picturing Disability by Robert Bogdan, Hardcover, 9780815633020 | Buy online at The Nile
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Picturing Disability

Beggar, Freak, Citizen and Other Photographic Rhetoric

Author: Robert Bogdan   Series: Critical Perspectives on Disability

Hardcover

Midget, feeble-minded, crippled, lame, and insane: these terms and the historical photographs that accompany them may seem shocking to present-day audiences. 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.

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PRODUCT INFORMATION

Summary

Midget, feeble-minded, crippled, lame, and insane: these terms and the historical photographs that accompany them may seem shocking to present-day audiences. 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.

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Description

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.

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Critic Reviews

“Picturing Disability presents nine genres of "disability photography" in a remarkable collection of 223 illustrations. Photos included range across more than a century, from the 1860s to the 1970s. The contribution of this work to the field of disability studies cannot be overstated, largely because of the scarcity of books on disability with a similar historical scope....Its noteworthy coverage and fresh insights make it a terrific contribution to the field.”

Picturing Disability presents nine genres of 'disability photography' in a remarkable collection of 223 illustrations. Photos included range across more than a century, from the 1860s to the 1970s. The contribution of this work to the field of disability studies cannot be overstated, largely because of the scarcity of books on disability with a similar historical scope. . . . Its noteworthy coverage and fresh insights make it a terrific contribution to the field.-- "Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies"
As a series of essays, Picturing Disability is a volume that is not easily forgotten. It raises issues about the language we use. It forces us to look at social systems and institutions. It also makes us reflect not just on the use of photographs in American culture but also on the portrayal of those with disabilities.-- "Journal of American Culture"
For anyone who is interested in the ways people with disabilities and their families were visualized and described in the past, and the ways those images then helped form stereotypes or perspectives towards disability in the present, Picturing Disability is an incredible resource and a must-read, or, rather, a must-read and must-see.-- "Journal of Disability and Religion"

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About the Author

Bogdan resides in Orwell, VT. Previous Books: Real Photo Postcard Guide: the People's Photography and Beauty and the Beast: Human-Animal Relations as Revealed in Real Photo Postcards, 1905-1935

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Product Details

Publisher
Syracuse University Press
Published
30th November 2012
Pages
198
ISBN
9780815633020

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