The Presence and Absences of Photomechanical Prints

The photomechanical print plays a significant role the history of photography, and the collections of images that have made this history. The development of photomechanical processes, and the output of visual content of mechanically printed photographs rivals, if not exceeds, the development and use of chemical photography in the 19th and 20th centuries. Niepce and Talbot, for example, were as interested in printing as they were in photochemistry. Yet, canonical histories of photography have traditionally focused on the development of chemical processes, with photomechanical images often mentioned as a footnote to this history. This presentation asks what happens to this narrative of the history of photography, when we look side by side at the histories of photography and the photographic collections that have been used to create these histories. The presentation will trace the role of the photomechanical image in the histories of photography, from Eder to the Gernsheims and Newhall, before looking at how contemporary scholarship is rethinking the role of the photomechanical image. Alongside this, we will also explore how photomechanical prints and technologies have been collected and rationalised in formal museum collection, from the National Science and Media Museum to Eastman Museum to the Harry Ransom Centre. The goal of this presentation will be to think across histories and collections, to understand the presence and multiple absences of the printed photograph in the way that we have constructed the history of photography. It will also attempt to draw some conclusions about how these narratives have shaped the boundaries of photographic history and the consequences this has had to how we see the broader implications of photographic objects