02816nam 2200421 450 991021986140332120230621141338.0(CKB)3800000000216166(EXLCZ)99380000000021616620171009d2017 uy| 0engurm|#---|||||txtrdacontentcrdamediacrrdacarrierSoaking up the rays light therapy and visual culture in Britain, c. 1890–1940 /Tania Anne WoloshynManchester, England :Manchester University Press,2017©20171 online resource (288 pages) illustrations, plates (some color); digital file(s)Print version: 9781784995126 1784995126 Includes bibliographical references and index.List of illustrations --Acknowledgements --1. Consuming light --2. Dosing sunburn --3. Light registers --4. Vanguard rays --5. Photogenic suntans --6. Dead points --Select bibliography --Index.Soaking up the rays forges a new path for exploring Britain’s fickle love of the light by investigating the beginnings of light therapy in the country, from c.1890–1940. Despite rapidly becoming a leading treatment for tuberculosis, rickets and other infections and skin diseases, light therapy was a contentious medical practice. Bodily exposure to light, whether for therapeutic or aesthetic ends, persists as a contested subject to this day: recommended to counter psoriasis and other skin conditions as well as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and depression; closely linked to notions of beauty, happiness and well-being, fuelling tourism to sunny locales abroad and the tanning industry at home; and yet with repeated health warnings that it is a dangerous carcinogen. By analysing archival photographs, illustrated medical texts, advertisements, lamps, and goggles and their visual representation of how light acted upon the body, Woloshyn assesses their complicated contribution to the founding of light therapy. Soaking up the rays will appeal to those intrigued by medicine’s visual culture, especially academics and students of the histories of art and visual culture, material cultures, medicine, science and technology, and popular culture.PhototherapyHistoryPhototherapyGreat BritainHistoryVisual communicationGreat BritainHistorySuntanPhototherapyHistory.PhototherapyHistory.Visual communicationHistory.Suntan.615.831Woloshyn Tania993507UkMaJRUBOOK9910219861403321Soaking up the rays2274900UNINA