A History of Light

When was photography invented, in 1826 with the first permanent photograph? If we depart from the technologically oriented accounts and consider photography as a philosophical discourse an alternative history appears, one which examines the human impulse to reconstruct the photographic or "the evoking of light". It's significance throughout the history of ideas is explored via the Platonic Dialogues, Iamblichus' theurgic writings, and Marsilio Ficino's texts. This alternative history is not a replacement of other narratives of photographic history but rather offers a way of rethinking photography's ontological instability.

Theresa Mikuriya

Acknowledgements Notes on References Introduction 1. Plato's Allegorical Camera-Cave 2. Plato's Chora and the Uneasy Place of Photography 3. Iamblichus's Receptacle of Light 4. Photographing the Divine: Philotheos of Batos 5. Marsilio Ficino: Light and Photosensitivity Coda Notes Bibliography Index