1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910558199703321

Autore

Finnegan Cara A.

Titolo

Photographic presidents : making history from daguerreotype to digital / / Cara A. Finnegan [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Urbana : , : University of Illinois Press, , 2021

ISBN

0-252-05324-9

0-252-04379-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (1 online resource)

Collana

Illinois scholarship online

Disciplina

973.099

Soggetti

Presidents - United States

Portrait photography - United States - History

Portraits, American

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Also issued in print: 2021.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Sommario/riassunto

Throughout history, presidents have actively participated in all aspects of photography, not only by sitting for photos but by taking and consuming them. Cara A. Finnegan ventures from a newly-discovered daguerreotype of John Quincy Adams to Barack Obama's selfies to tell the stories of how presidents have participated in the medium's transformative moments. As she shows, technological developments not only changed photography, but introduced new visual values that influence how we judge an image. At the same time, presidential photographs - as representations of leaders who symbolised the nation - sparked public debate on these values and their implications. An original journey through political history, 'Photographic Presidents' reveals the intertwined evolution of an American institution and a medium that continues to define it.