Masterpieces of Medical Photography: Selections from the Burns Archive [Hardcover]

Joel-Peter Witkin (Editor)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Twelvetrees Pr (February 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 094264221X
• ISBN-13: 978-0942642216
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,530,678 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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5.0 out of 5 stars Photographs of 19th century medical subjects, December 5, 2007

By 

E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Masterpieces of Medical Photography: Selections from the Burns Archive (Hardcover)

This fine, limited-edition hard-bound book with dust jacket was published in 1987 by the Twelvetrees Press. It contains forty four-color plates on uncoated paper with accompanying text. The photograph on each plate consists of a medical subject from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century. They are taken from the Burns Archive, which houses over 700, 000 vintage prints, including the world's largest collection of early medical photographs. This collection is especially noted for iconic historic images- medical photography and images of the dark side of life, including death, disease, and war.

"Masterpieces of Medical Photography" is edited and introduced by Joel-Peter Witkin. The captions and afterword are by Stanley B. Burns, M.D.

The book, itself is unpaginated, and sized at 12 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches. The first edition was limited to 3000 hardbound copies. Each photograph is on a separate page with a short description on the back of the page.

Examples of photographs from this book:

"Dissected Head in Soup Plate" Silver Print 1905

"Young Woman with Elephantiasis from Scarlet Fever" Artotype 1878

"Hospital Gangrene" Albumen print 1865

"Girl with Large Foot Jumping Rope" Cabinet Card 1895

Many of the photographs are taken of the dead and wounded from America's Civil War. One of the saddest is labeled "A Morning's Work," an 1865 Albumen print credited to Reed B. Bontecou, M.D. It consists of a pile of amputated legs and feet.

Each of the forty prints in this book is explained in a separate appendix by Stanley B. Burns, M.D. For instance "A Morning's Work" is described as follows:

"This photograph graphically documents Civil War devastation. More than 625,000 men died, one of every four that fought. In addition, more than 400,000 were wounded. Infections, chronic diarrhea and dysentery killed tens of thousands in the years following the war as a ravaged generation and a young nation continued to pay the cost of the war."

"Masterpieces of Medical Photography" is a rare collector's item that should be cherished by medical professionals, photographers, and historians who are interested in the Civil War and nineteenth century medicine.