Patient Portraits: The Camera in the Asylum, c.1880-1910

Almost since its invention, photography was part of asylum life with photographs of patients appearing in medical case books, medical journals, textbooks and private collections. Asylum photography was practised by both medical staff and professional photographers with the camera becoming part of the material fabric of the institution. However, the visual record that remains is a neglected historical source, one that can reveal insights into the processes of institutionalization, visualisation and identification of the ‘insane’. This paper examines patient photographs from a variety of sources to suggest ways in the camera and photographic image were integral to life in the asylum. We may think we know what a psychiatric patient looked like. Examining the surviving visual record helps us reconsider this assumption with surprising and fascinating results.

Lunch will be provided. Please let Sheilagh.Holmes@warwick.ac.uk know you are coming so that we can cater for the right number of people.