Bark on black spruce 1894

This is "Bark on Black Spruce", a photograph by G.H. Rison, bound in a book of similar images. Consider the ways that nineteenth-century photography and its institutions shaped our relationship to nature. Photography promised a kind of scientific objectivity, but how objective is it, really? This image suggests a burgeoning interest in taxonomy and categorization. These practices coincided with the expansion of museums and the professionalization of natural history. As photography became more sophisticated, it offered new ways of seeing and documenting the natural world. But it also raises questions about how we frame and understand our environment. In other words, images like these are more than just pictures, they are cultural documents that reflect specific ideas about nature, science, and the role of visual representation in shaping our perceptions. To know more, consider the archive of this photographer, the social context of their production, and the contemporary debates about the role of science.