My presentation grapples with the complex differentiation of a photographic recording method. Focusing on the period from 1839 to 1900, I explore the various applications of the chemo-technical process known today simply as “photography.” My presentation seeks a contrast (or perhaps addition) to the concept of photography as mechanical objectivity as described by (among others) Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison in their 2007 study on objectivity. Instead, in my presentation I will analyze the photographic process via an approach that might be described as microscopic. Through an examination of snowflakes generated in different natural science contexts, I aim to explore the medium itself, i.e., to establish the chemical and optical relativity of photographic images as essential to their scientific use and ability to generate scientific meaning. My aim is to explain that the conditions surrounding the generation of photographs alone do not – nolens volens – account for the quality of an illustration. Rather, these conditions in fact lead the illustrations themselves to fade in importance. My aim is to show that the representational quality of a scientific photograph can only be assessed with recourse to its specific media constitution, coupled with a meticulous reconstruction of the discourses it both conditioned and generated.
