An environmental history of chemical photography through the lens of its deep connections to empire and industry.
 
Dependent on the extractive practices of fossil-fueled industrial capitalism, chemical photography’s emulsions and films were highly sensitive to polluted atmospheres, and photographic companies had to work hard to control this sensitivity. Drawing on histories of empire, coal, and chemistry and from the archives of British photographic manufacturer Ilford Limited, Michelle Henning exposes the ways photography shaped how we see and understand the atmosphere while leaving its toxic residues in the air, soil, and water.
 
Structured as thirty-six short chapters and with over seventy illustrations, this innovative book begins in interwar London, follows the supply of Ilford products to photographers on the West African coast, and considers photography as a military technology linked to the development of chemical warfare. Combining close readings of photographs with discussions of low-light, tropical, and aerial photography, Henning examines the extraction and development of photographic materials, their role in the current environmental crisis, and how they have shaped experiences of time and the environment.
 

"

“With this delightful book, [Henning] offers a compelling material and conceptual history of analogic photography based on the idea that, due to its chemical nature, it was born as a deeply extractive medium whose developments exploited the same trade networks of coal-based fossil fuel capitalism. . . . A Dirty History of Photography is a major contribution in shifting photography studies from aesthetics to infrastructure and materiality with interdisciplinary views and a significant theoretical perspective. It is recommended as a brilliant source for scholars of media and visual studies, science, technology, and environmental humanities.”