The Modern Dream of Order

This book redefines the history of modernity by focusing on how people used photography to affirm continuity and social stability during a time defined by rapid transition in every sphere of life. By the early 1860s, commercial portrait photography had become an everyday experience. Through their daily reception and interpretation, photographs were utilized to construct and consolidate social relations and to imagine social order visually. Queen Victoria’s ubiquitous photographic presence in private and communal contexts demonstrates how the new visual media re-enforced the power of conventional concepts of order and stability. Critical reflection on this mechanism is crucial to understanding current media practices as well.

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