A History of Light: The Idea of Photography

Synopsis

When Was Photography Invented? In 1826 With The First Permanent Photograph? If We Depart From The Technologically Oriented Accounts And Consider Photography As A Philosophical Discourse An Alternative History Appears, One Which Examines The Human Impulse To Reconstruct The Photogogic Or The Evoking Of Light. The Significance Of The Photagogic Throughout The History Of Ideas Is Explored Via The Platonic Dialogues, Iamblichus' Theurgic Writings, And Marsilio Ficino's Texts. This Alternative History Is Not A Replacement Of Other Narratives Of Photographic History But Rather Offers A Way Of Rethinking Photography's Ontological Instability.--cover Page 4. Plato's Allegorical Camera-cave -- Plato's Chora And The Uneasy Place Of Photography -- Iamblichus's Receptacle Of Light -- Photographing The Divine: Philotheos Of Batos -- Marsilio Ficino: Light And Photosensitivity. Junko Theresa Mikuriya. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 127-168) And Index.