Capturing Nature: Early Scientific Photography at the Australian Museum 1857-1893

Description

Trade Illustration Selection in the 2020 AUPresses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show SHORTLISTED for Australian Book Design Awards 2020 Best Designed Nonfiction Book (inc. Scholarly and References) Highly Commended in the AAANZ Arts Writing and Publishing Awards, Best Medium Exhibition Catalogue category The groundbreaking scientific photographs of Australian Museum curator Gerard Krefft and taxidermist Henry Barnes are revealed for the first time. In the mid-nineteenth century, scientists around the world were quick to see photography's huge potential for capturing fleeting moments of life, death and discovery. At the Australian Museum, curator Gerard Krefft and taxidermist Henry Barnes began to experiment with the revolutionary new art form, preparing and staging their specimens - from whales and giant sunfish to lifelike lyre bird scenes and fossils - and documenting them in thousands of arresting images. Capturing Nature reveals these groundbreaking photographs for the first time, along with the Australian Museum's urgent quest to become more scientific in its practices.

Vanessa Finney is a curator, historian, and archivist with a special interest in natural history in colonial Australia. At the Australian Museum she manages the country's oldest and largest natural history archives and rare books collection. She is the author of Transformations: Harriet and Helena Scott, colonial Sydney's finest natural history painters (NewSouth December 2018).