Reproduction as Remediation? The Case of Nineteenth-century Photography

Abstract

This paper discusses the interpretive value of the concept of remediation when applied to older media, in this case photography, considered in its early days and in terms of the reproductive function often associated with it in this period. Can one reconcile the 19^th-century notion of reproduction with the notion of remediation, defined as the reform of older media in the name of greater immediacy? This question is addressed first through the context of the French invention of photography, then through the work of the English inventor Fox Talbot, and finally with the photographic reproduction of paintings by Paul Delaroche. The argument is that the theory of remediation tends to overshadow the political economy as well as the esthetics of photographic reproduction.