The Photogram 1894

This is the frontispiece and title page of ‘The Photogram, Volume 1,’ published in London by Dawbarn and Ward. ‘The Photogram’ was an early photography journal intended to promote photography as both an art form and a science. Consider the cultural context in which photography was emerging: How might its accessibility challenge the dominance of painting and sculpture, historically considered ‘high art’ forms accessible only to the wealthy? What new opportunities did it offer in terms of documenting and disseminating information about the world? What anxieties might it have provoked regarding the nature of truth and representation? To understand this journal more fully, we might consult archives of photography societies, records of early photographic equipment manufacturers, and the writings of art critics and social commentators of the period. Through such research, we can begin to understand ‘The Photogram’ not just as a historical object, but as a window into the social and cultural landscape of its time.