Twee aanblikken van een hand met een carcinoom before 1894

Albert Ludwig Sigesmund Neisser, a German dermatologist, made this photograph entitled "Twee aanblikken van een hand met een carcinoom" - or "Two Views of a Hand with Carcinoma" - sometime between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, amidst a period of significant advancement in medical photography. Neisser’s work offers a glimpse into the clinical gaze of the time, reflecting an era when medical documentation often objectified patients, reducing them to mere specimens for study. As medicine advanced, so did the ability to visually record the body, yet this progress often came at the cost of patient autonomy and privacy. These black and white images force us to confront how the body can be viewed as a site of both scientific inquiry and personal experience. What does it mean to see illness so starkly displayed? What emotions does this evoke in us? By grappling with these questions, we can better understand the complex relationship between medicine, representation, and the human condition.