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“Our perceptions of the natural world are of course both real and illusory. The certainty of what is reality and what is illusion, however, is knowable only from points of reference that we accept as defining those two states. ” ― Bede Morris

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'Images: illusion and reality' is a book about the history of photography in terms of the arts and sciences. It is very interesting to see how many aspects of photography started in the 19th century. This includes the invention of photography, the creation of different photographic techniques, work on colour photography, and even holography. It was a very creative time.

I very much enjoyed the way in which the scientific and the artistic sides of photography were included - and indeed the way in which the arts and the sciences overlap. They are not distinct fields. they include each other in their approaches and methods.

The book contains the thoughts of Bede Morris and Arthur Birch of the Australian Academy of Science.

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“What peer review group would have recommended funding Nièpce in 1815 to do research on a method for producing pictures from elements of electromagnetic radiation, if he had claimed this research would lead to an analysis of the composition of the stars, a description of the internal machinery of cells, the form and structure of microbes and molecules, a method for diagnosing pregnancy by sound and cancers by radioactive imaging and, for good measure, the establishment of a motion picture industry, computerized tomographic brain scans, television and instantaneous news reports from around the world by satellite projection? Nièpce could never have been funded through a peer review system — all he had was a dream, an inspiration, a passion and a conviction. These sorts of things are for artists; they are not the stuff of discovery and certainly not a basis on which to fund research.” ― Bede Morris

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The book was published in 1986, close to the 150th anniversary of the invention of photography. Now (2023) we are approaching photography's 200th anniversary.

It is quite an experience to look at photographs that are almost 200 years old. Photographs made by sunlight, reflected from the people and places long ago.

It is more powerful than something painted. Something painted has been interpreted by human mind and hand. The photographs have been painting by light itself. What you see is what it really was

This book can be recommended for it's blending of the Arts and the Sciences and the view that our perception is partly real and partly illusory. These views make for an open and inspiring approach to the topic of photography.

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“Photography is now such a universally available technique that every camera enthusiast has become a potential artist and every photograph, a potential masterpiece, As a technology and art form, photography has had a pervasive effect on human civilization, influencing social evolution, education, science, culture and commerce as well as the artistic and aesthetic Interpretation of the world.” ― Bede Morris

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