| A Communion of Shadows: Religion and Photography in Nineteenth-Century America Contributor(s): Lindsey, Rachel McBride (Author) |
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ISBN: 1469633728 ISBN-13: 9781469633725 Publisher: University of North Carolina Press OUR PRICE: $30.88 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: October 2017 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Religion | Devotional - History | United States - 19th Century - Photography | Subjects & Themes - General |
| Dewey: 204.4 |
| LCCN: 2017003594 |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 6.14" W x 9.21" (1.06 lbs) 312 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 19th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: When the revolutionary technology of photography erupted in American culture in 1839, it swiftly became, in the day's parlance, a mania. This richly illustrated book positions vernacular photography at the center of the study of nineteenth-century American religious life. As an empirical tool, photography captured many of the signal scenes of American life, from the gold rush to the bloody battlefields of the Civil War. But photographs did not simply display neutral records of people, places, and things; rather, commonplace photographs became inscribed with spiritual meaning, disclosing, not merely signifying, a power that lay beyond. Rachel McBride Lindsey demonstrates that what people beheld when they looked at a photograph had as much to do with what lay outside the frame--theological expectations, for example--as with what the camera had recorded. Whether studio portraits tucked into Bibles, postmortem portraits with locks of hair attached, spirit photography, stereographs of the Holy Land, or magic lanterns used in biblical instruction, photographs were curated, beheld, displayed, and valued as physical artifacts that functioned both as relics and as icons of religious practice. Lindsey's interpretation of vernacular as an analytic introduces a way to consider anew the cultural, social, and material reach of religion. A multimedia collaboration with MAVCOR--Center for the Study of Material & Visual Cultures of Religion--at Yale University. |
Contributor Bio(s): Lindsey, Rachel McBride: - Rachel McBride Lindsey is assistant professor of American religious history and culture in the Department of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University. |