In the 31 January 1896 issue of The Photographic Journal, an article by J. W. Gifford described testing a new photographic technology:
“On trying this arrangement, I gave an exposure of five minutes to a plate enclosed in a wooden box at a distance of about three inches from the tube, and got my boy to place his hand on the outside of the box, and the result I got was this (shown).”[1]
X-rays were discovered by Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895 and already in the first edition of The Photographic Journal in 1896, there is a translation of Röntgens first paper on the discovery.[2]
Photography contains a wide range of practices, both within what we might describe as photography for pleasure and diversion, and on the other hand fields where we have become very much dependent on the photographic technologies for our health, wellbeing, security and so forth.
One would think that x-ray photography would land firmly in the second camp. It is an essential tool in medicine, to identify damage on the skeleton or foreign bodies, was very important in diagnosing lung disease and is still very much in use in dentistry, to get a clear view of the state of a patient's teeth.
In the beginning though, according to art historian Nanna Lenander, X-rays were “comprehended - as a variation of traditional photography, but with an additional 'see through-effect'. In the RPS journal, the practice is often described as 'the new photography'[3].
X-ray images appeared in the annual exhibition in 1896, both as its own category, and among the lantern slides. Wilson Noble was given a medal for three images, and W. Grant and John Hall-Edwards also submitted x-rays.
In January 1897, the same Hall-Edwards is delivering a talk attempting to sum up the situation a year after the discovery of the X-rays. There had been much experimentation and use of x-rays, but still, it was not known what this phenomenon was: “I am afraid that I have nothing new to offer you, little or no progress has been made, and no satisfactory theory as to the cause of the phenomena is so far forthcoming.”
Hall-Edwards continues by acknowledging that x-ray photography will be 'a help and a blessing to mankind', but that from the point of view of the ordinary photographer, the results have proved disappointing. “In common with a great many others I hoped to obtain great things from the application of X-rays to photography. Why I should have done so I am now unable to say, any more than I am afraid that the wish was father of the thought.”[4] It is possible that Hall-Edwards is referring to a hope that X-rays should help clarify some unknown elements of ordinary photography, but it also seems that there was a hope of developing a whole new visual category, that one would be able to create satisfying images adhering to the conventions of good images of the time.
These days it is well known that extended exposure to x-rays can be dangerous. The danger lies in cell change by the rays that can lead to cancer in the worst case. At the time this was not an issue, but after the initial intense experimentation the issue of damage on the skin is raised repeatedly, often being dismissed by other members as resulting from handling of developing chemicals.[5]
After the initial flurry of interest, x-rays seem to have disappeared from sight for a while, with no x-ray images in the exhibition for a few years, and few mentions in the journal, before reemerging years later, as a more mature technology.
Arne Langleite, Norsk Teknisk Museum, Oslo.
Notes
