Number 8 of the Photographica magazine was released by Éditions de la Sorbonne, it is fantastic. It is entitled “Price, cost, value: for an economic history of photography”:
The question of the price, the cost or the value of photography sometimes helps to explain the generalization of certain techniques rather than others, the development or, on the contrary, the obstacles present to their uses in such or such social circles. However, the complex relationships established between the quantitative (price in relation to cost) and qualitative (value) evaluations of photographic images are rarely confronted. How are these different scales determined? What is the price of photography and its practice? What are the costs of its generalization, or even its valorization?
By attempting to quantify and understand the fluctuations which affect, condition and link these variations in the field of photography, it is a question of trying to overcome the opposition between use value and exchange value. This issue of Photographica thus questions the value systems attached to the photographic object, its production, its circulation and its heritage, which make it possible to sketch an economic, and therefore social, history.
Photographica 8 Table of contents :
– Éléonore Challine and Paul-Louis Roubert, “Price, cost, value: for an economic history of photography”.
– Catlin Langford, ““The prerogative of every photographer”. Evaluating the accessibility of autochrome”, translation by Jean-François Cornu.
– Katherine Mintie, “Paper pulp, pollution and decline. Taking into account the negative externalities of the photographic paper industry in the 20th century”, translation by Jean-François Cornu.
– Marie-Ève Bouillon, “Anatomy of a photographic enterprise. Values of images and accumulation processes for the Neurdein brothers, 1863-1917”.
– Kathrin Yacavone, “Cultural values, financial values of photography. A historical survey of photographic institutions in Germany”.
– François Cheval, “The Herschel course. The construction of the idea of value in photography”.
– Rose Durr, “The snapshot on the Saint-Mandé market. Practices, circulation and attribution of value(s)”.
Source
– Éléonore Challine, “On the historical price of photographs. The Envoi made to the Museum of Decorative Arts on December 2, 1935 by the French Society of Photography”.
Translation
– Steve Edwards, “Why images? From art history to business history, back and forth”, translation by Claire Martinet.
Interview
– “Photography, the market, the expert”, an interview with Antoine Romand. Comments collected by Marie-Ève Bouillon and Paul-Louis Roubert.
Envoy
– Emmanuelle Fructus, “Disorders in amateur and anonymous photography”.
Scientific news
Other issues of Photographica
Photographica October 1, 2020: “Photographic heritage, material for history”
Photographica April 2, 2021: “Outside the walls: photographers and mobile studios”
Photographica October 3, 2021: “World stories of photography”
Photographica April 4, 2022: “Behind the image”
Photographica October 5, 2022: “Chosen portraits, endured portraits”
Photographica April 6, 2023: “Photography and models: the nude and its stories”
Photographica October 7, 2023: “Cinema through its photographs”
