Medicine and visual culture: photography in scientific journals and the production of experimental medical knowledge in Argentina, 1890-1915

Abstract

This article addresses how photography was part of the argumentative and expository strategies of medical professionals and its role in the production of experimental knowledge between 1890 and 1915. To investigate these issues, representative medical journals of the period were surveyed, always considering the advances in image reproduction techniques. The analysis carried out allows us to observe how the photographs were part of the explanations presented to the scientific community to persuade the efficacy of experimental treatments and novel surgical procedures, in the context of the professionalization of medicine and the need to legitimize a “culture of the laboratory.”

photography; history of medicine; medical journals; visual culture